[ntp:questions] NTP client basic

mills at udel.edu mills at udel.edu
Thu Mar 8 20:38:13 UTC 2007


Per,

Thanks for the correction. The ntpdate program has grown insiduously 
over the years from humble beginnings.

It's not clear what ntpdate does with multiple responses from multiple 
servers, in effect simulating the algorithms of the NTP specification. 
The current SNTP specification RFC 4330 says nothing about these 
algorithms. That RFC is about to be obsoleted by the NTPv4 specification 
now in-pipe. The description of the SNTP subset says nothing about these 
algorithms either.

It seems to me using ntpdate in this way is counterproductive, since the 
current ntpd can operate in the same modes and does include the heavy 
machinery.

Dave

Per Hedeland wrote:

> In article <esmjie$80q$1 at scrotar.nss.udel.edu> "David L. Mills"
> <mills at udel.edu> writes:
> 
>>This is even more bogus. True, current ntpdate does send multiple 
>>packets, not to different servers, but the same server.
> 
> 
> It sends multiple packets to each of however many servers you care to
> give it on the commandline. Not that I know what this has to do with
> SNTP (whether the protocol or the program).
> 
> --Per Hedeland
> per at hedeland.org




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