ntpd configutration -- a small suggestion from the peanut gallery

[Arthur Chance]

On 07/06/2019 09:57, Dave Cottlehuber wrote:
> On Thu, 6 Jun 2019, at 18:14, RW via freebsd-questions wrote:
>> On Wed, 5 Jun 2019 08:40:51 +0200 (CEST)
>> Trond Endrestøl wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, 4 Jun 2019 23:18-0700, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
>>>
>>>> I feel sure that I'll be able to figure out how to get ntpd properly
>>>> enabled & configured, but I would just like to offer, hunbly, to the
>>>> Powers That Be, that it would be Nice if ntpd, once enabled during
>>>> install, just worked, you know, right outta the box.  
>>>
>>> Adding
>>>
>>> ntpd_sync_on_start="YES"
>>>
>>> to /etc/rc.conf is one way. 
>>
>> Perhaps it should be the default. 
> 
> It is in CURRENT[1] & would be worth MFC although possibly too late
> for 11.3R.
> 
> https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ntpdate mentions:
> 
> DESCRIPTION
>      Note: The functionality o this program is	now available in the ntpd(8)
>      program.  See the -q command line option in the ntpd(8) page.  After a
>      suitable period of	mourning, the ntpdate utility is to be retired from
>      this distribution.
> 
> Perhaps a revision that uses ntpd_flags would be better?

There is one advantage to using ntpdate_enable="YES" rather than
ntpd_sync_on_start="YES" and that's the fact that ntpdate is blocking.
When the rc script finishes you know the clock is correct, whereas with
ntpd_sync_on_start the time step can be some time after the script has
returned. If you run a daemon like dovecot that objects to time going
backwards (and dies) that can be a problem.

> --panicgate
> 
> [2]: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ntpd
> [1]: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=r326095
> 
> Author: manu <manu at FreeBSD.org>
> Date:   Wed Nov 22 15:27:47 2017 +0000
> 
>     bsdinstall: Add ntpdate option
> 
>     When you install a computer for the first time, the date in the CMOS sometimes
>     not accurate and you need to ntpdate as ntpd will fail a the time difference
>     is too big.
>     Add an option in bsdinstall to enable ntpdate that will do that for us.
> 
>     Reviewed by:    allanjude
>     Differential Revision:  https://reviews.freebsd.org/D13149
> 


-- 
What do we want?
A time machine!
When do we want it?
Errm ...