From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Wed Jun 5 17:28:16 2019 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1953A15B3E93 for ; Wed, 5 Jun 2019 17:28:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rfg@tristatelogic.com) Received: from outgoing.tristatelogic.com (segfault.tristatelogic.com [69.62.255.118]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDAA58BDE3 for ; Wed, 5 Jun 2019 17:28:14 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rfg@tristatelogic.com) Received: from segfault-nmh-helo.tristatelogic.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by segfault.tristatelogic.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 924093AEFE; Wed, 5 Jun 2019 10:28:13 -0700 (PDT) From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" To: Matthias Oestreicher Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ntpd configutration -- a small suggestion from the peanut gallery In-Reply-To: Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2019 10:28:13 -0700 Message-ID: <51500.1559755693@segfault.tristatelogic.com> X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: EDAA58BDE3 X-Spamd-Bar: ------ Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; spf=pass (mx1.freebsd.org: domain of rfg@tristatelogic.com designates 69.62.255.118 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=rfg@tristatelogic.com X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-6.25 / 15.00]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-1.00)[-1.000,0]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; TO_DN_SOME(0.00)[]; R_SPF_ALLOW(-0.20)[+mx]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-1.00)[-1.000,0]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; DMARC_NA(0.00)[tristatelogic.com]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_SOME(0.00)[]; MX_GOOD(-0.01)[cached: mx1.tristatelogic.com]; RCPT_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2]; NEURAL_HAM_SHORT(-0.88)[-0.881,0]; IP_SCORE(-3.16)[ip: (-8.34), ipnet: 69.62.128.0/17(-4.17), asn: 14051(-3.23), country: US(-0.06)]; RCVD_NO_TLS_LAST(0.10)[]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; R_DKIM_NA(0.00)[]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; ASN(0.00)[asn:14051, ipnet:69.62.128.0/17, country:US]; RCVD_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2] X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2019 17:28:16 -0000 In message , Matthias Oestreicher wrote: >NTP works out of the box, but does not accept big time changes unless you run it with >the -g option. I think it's not ntp's fault. OK. Thanks. It now appears that this was indeed the issue, and I did need the -g option. The ntpd daemon -was- dying entirely, shortly after starting up, but now I have run it manually with the -g option and also with the other options that it normally gets when it has been started via "/etc/rc.d/ntpd start" and now all seems to be well. (Apparently, adding ntpd_sync_on_start="YES" to /etc/rc.conf is the particular magic that should be used to cause ntpd to always be started with the -g option, which suits me just fine. I'm not sure why this isn't used by default, but I guess that some folks are a lot more worried about their time getting set wrong somehow than I am.) Just one more small thing... The man page for ntpd says, very explicitly, undetr the description of the -g option, that when and if ntpd finds that the time adjustment needed is too big, it will exit *and* also write a message (presumably explaining why it did that) to "the system log". I am assming that for a fresh new system that has not yet been fiddled too much, that means the message in question... which explains why ntpd has elected to commit suicide... should appear in the /var/log/messages file. Certainly I *am* seeing other messages from ntpd in that file. But I am quite certainly *not* seeing any message in that file and tagged with the name "ntpd" that mentioned either that ntpd was electing to commit suicide *or* the reason why it might be doing so. Did I just miss those ntpd death messages somehow?