[ntp:questions] [ntp:hackers] ntpdate removal is coming

Harlan Stenn stenn at ntp.org
Sun Jul 17 19:57:06 UTC 2011


Dave Hart wrote:
> After many years of deprecation while still shipping, ntpdate's days
> as a separate C program are numbered.  I want to review alternatives
> and suggest next steps.
> 
> First, though, a quick review of why ntpdate is deprecated and will be
> removed.  ntpdate serves two primary purposes today:
> 
> 1)  A diagnostic tool, particularly to help troubleshoot connectivity
> problems such as those introduced by firewalls.  In this role, 4.2.7's
> sntp provides equivalent capability, including the ability to send
> queries from the reserved NTP UDP port 123.
> 
> 2)  One-shot clock synchronization, such as before starting
> step-phobic daemons.  In this role, there are a plethora of
> alternatives, which I will cover below.

Just to be clear, there *used* to be some reasons to set the clock
before starting ntpd.  In general, there is no need to do this anymore
and I have not heard any good reasons it should still be needed.

If anybody knows of any *good* reasons to set the clock before starting
ntpd, please speak up.

H



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