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From: hagan@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu (John Dotts Hagan)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.time.ntp
Subject: ntpd startup option
Message-ID: <1990Oct18.185509@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu>
Date: 18 Oct 90 22:55:09 GMT
Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu
Reply-To: hagan@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu (John Dotts Hagan)
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 46

I start ntpd from /etc/rc.local upon boot, and I bet most people do.

Sometimes my system has a very bad idea of the time - like off by MONTHS or
YEARS due
to a clock battery problem, changing a failed CPU, or whatever.

The point is, I want ntpd to fix the time using the STEP function.  However, it
decides that
the time is "like, too radical man" to just STEP.  So I have to do a "ntp -s -f
<some-ticker>".
In fact, I have this "nifty" script:

#!/bin/csh -f

set path = ( /usr/bin /usr/ucb /bin /usr/local/bin $path )
ntp -s -f `egrep "^(peer|server)" < /etc/ntp.conf | awk '{print $2}'`


That works pretty well, but it is a pain that I have to do something like:

#
#  @(#)rc.local	1.1 (ULTRIX) 3/2/89
             .
   ...stuff deleted...
             .
# Begin local junk
[ -f /usr/local/bin/ntp-setup ] && {
	/usr/local/bin/ntp-startup				>/dev/console
}
[ -f /usr/local/bin/ntpd ] && {
	/usr/local/bin/ntpd & echo ' ntpd'			>/dev/console
}


How about an option to ntpd like "ntpd -b" meaning "yo ntpd, please do the ntp
thing but keep
in mind you are being called at boot time - so if you have to get huge with the
system clock and
change it wildly, go for it."

Does that sound reasonable?  I think it should be willing to shift the system
clock beyond
CLOCK.MAX (it think that was it) only once (initally).  Then, it would act like
it does now.

--Kid.