[ntp:questions] "ntpd -q" is slow compared to ntpdate

Richard B. Gilbert rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Thu Oct 16 22:07:43 UTC 2008


Hal Murray wrote:
>> It seems to me a topic related to initially getting the time set on a box is
>> the ability to determine the 'synchronization status' of ntpd.
> 
> There is another can of worms in this area.  What do you do if
> it doesn't get synchronized within X seconds?  (say because
> your network link is down)
> 

Is there anything you CAN do?  It would seem that with the network down 
your options are to live with whatever time the system clock has or to 
set the time to that of the best available source, be it your wrist 
watch, cell phone, sun dial, etc.  Even if your source is perfect, your 
ability to set the clock using "date" or the equivalent on some non 
Unix/Linux system is probably going to leave your clock off by 500 
milliseconds or more.

If you MUST have the correct time whether the network is working or not, 
you probably should have a "hardware reference clock" such as a GPS 
timing receiver, WWV receiver, etc.




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