[ntp:hackers] ntpd -N is default on Windows...

todd glassey tglassey at glassey.com
Sun Feb 15 18:59:32 UTC 2009


David J Taylor wrote:
> Dave Hart wrote:
> []
>   
>> Why not leave good enough alone?  Why would a Windows ntpd
>> user want to run ntpd at normal priority?
>>
>> Look, I agree, it's bad to have a documented switch that is
>> default off on Unix and forced on on Windows without docs
>> mentioning that.  Obviously, consistency across platforms is
>> a good thing, but consistency across releases is a greater
>> good thing in this case.
>>
>> Cheers
>> Dave Hart
>>     

Actually consistency across functional use models is the real win. The 
switches specific to any platform would make it easier for a manager of 
a heterogeneous network model to adjust the time in each of their 
locations. But you also haven't taken into account that to insure 
trustability - the time services need to be isolated from the Systems 
Admins as well.

So the real issue is making the same services uniformly work across all 
of the supported platforms, and if there is a need in the UNIX model to 
specify a command-switch that isn't going to be used on a windows 
platform perhaps a architecture control is what is needed.

Todd Glassey
>
> Folks,
>
> My feeling is that the Windows version is more likely to be installed on a 
> double-click and run basis, and should certainly have the "most suitable" 
> defaults for the user.  If the built-in default in "-N", and that is 
> documented, I don't really see a problem.  After all, there are other 
> differences between various OS which may require user different action 
> (location of binaries and other files, service management, for examples) 
> and documentation, so could not the difference in the -N parameter be 
> documented along with those other changes?
>
> Just as I don't see why NTPD would be run at a normal priority, I don't 
> understand why using a high priority isn't the default setting on other 
> OSes.
>
> Cheers,
> David
>   



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