[ntp:questions] Finding out where ntpd gets its ntp.conf file

Joseph Gwinn joegwinn at comcast.net
Thu Sep 4 10:36:53 UTC 2008


In article <48bf5d9c$0$21355$c30e37c6 at pit-reader.telstra.net>,
 "Peter J. Cherny" <peterc at luddite.com.au> wrote:

> Joseph Gwinn wrote:
> >...
> > Which brings me to a question:  How does one get NTP to tell you exactly 
> > where it is getting such things as the ntp.conf file from, all without 
>  >...
> [peterc at tantalus ~]$ strings /usr/sbin/ntpd|grep ntp.conf
> /etc/ntp.conf

In the RHEL case, this would find exactly the wrong copy of ntp.conf, 
being the one we were changing to no avail, not the one that NTP was in 
fact using.


> [peterc at tantalus ~]$ strace -f -o x /usr/sbin/ntpd -g

I'll have to look into this.  It sounds like it might be general enough.

 
> [root at tantalus ~]# grep ntp.conf x
> 3351  open("/etc/ntp.conf", O_RDONLY)   = 4

Doesn't this assume that the correct "ntp.conf" file is called ntp.conf?  
It may be common, the standard convention, but it is not required.

The whole point is to find the correct file without making assumptions, 
because on a strange computer strange things may have been done.

Thanks,

Joe Gwinn




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