[ntp:questions] ntpd vs ntpd -qg

Harlan Stenn stenn at ntp.org
Thu Oct 13 07:16:05 UTC 2011


Riccardo wrote:
> What do you think about usage of 'ntpd -qd' command or 'ntpd' daemon
> for synchronization for client ?
> What differences ?

'ntpd -q' runs for a short time and exits.  It sets the time once, and
then goes away.  It does nothing for long-term synchronization.

There used to be a very small reason to consider setting the time before
running ntpd, but I forgot what that reason was.

If you care about time run ntpd, and at boot-time it should be given the
-g flag.

There are some other choices as well, and I recommend reading about the
command-line options.

H


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