I know how to configure ntpd on nearly every unix under the sun. Except Gentoo. Every time I sync portage and update world, the configuration for ntpd is different. ntpd has its own documentation that applies to its configuration file /etc/ntp.conf, and that documentation is entirely adequate for the usual install of ntpd. But in Gentoo the developers cannot make up their mind which config file should be used. As a user and admin of an academic lab running gentoo, this has finally made me mad enough to submit a bug report. We had a major time syncronization problem that invalidated several experimental results because one of our admins didn't realize that ntp-client was necessary for initial synchronization while ntpd was required to maintain synchronization. Now we still have ntp-client in init.d, but only one /etc/conf/ntp.conf. And that new ntp.conf now appears to fiddle with /etc/ntp.conf. This is not sane. If I want a distribution that reconfigures every package, I'll go with Red Hat and take advantage of their vastly superior testing resources. We chose Gentoo because of the flexiblility it provides in package management, and the similarity of its pacakges to those found on the web. That way we can read the ntp documentation and expect it to apply to our system. If Gentoo has ntp documentation, I feel sorry for the authors trying to keep up with the ever-changing config files. Leave ntp alone, folks. We need one initscript that sets the clock, and then launches ntpd. We'll figure out how to edit /etc/ntp.conf using the *shock* man page *shock*. If we don't like your initscript, we'll edit it ourselves (if you haven't yet made runscript more labyrinthine than Red Hat's init system). You do *not* have the resources to customize on the level of Red Hat, and that's a good thing. Since you didn't write ntp, don't screw with the ntp authors' intentions. And they intended for admins to edit /etc/ntp.conf. If you have decided that Gentoo is targetting clueless users, let us know so we can get off the boat. I don't want to go anywhere near a source-based distro that takes hours to install but is targeted at morons. I think we all know what fool-proof really means. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3.
I must rescind part of my complaint -- the ntp-client initscript still wants its own config file in /etc/conf.d. Unfortunately such a file was not provided during install. Should I feel any happier knowing that ntp-client is supposed to have its own config file?
if your system is lacking /etc/conf.d/{ntpd,ntp-client}, that's an issue with portage, not ntp if you dont like using the ntp init scripts, then dont use them ... you obviously have had a lot of trouble with them, so put together your own and forget about it ntp doesnt install it's own /etc/ntp.conf, so i'm not sure what i'm supposed to do about that ntp-client is provided because ntpd confuses a lot of new comers to ntp ... and often times, ntp-client is what new comers want, not ntpd ... ntp technically doesnt have manpages nor will they ever (according to upstream) as for your admin that missed using ntp-client and ntpd, perhaps if you used your own setup rather than the 'Gentoo' one, it wouldnt have happened ? or if he read the man pages as you suggest users should ? i dont see any real issues here if you: (1) have an empty system (2) `emerge ntp` (3a) you want to use ntp-client, edit /etc/conf.d/ntp-client, and add it to the desired runlevel (3b) you want to use ntpd, edit /etc/ntp.conf (creating it after reading the manpages) and /etc/conf.d/ntpd, and add it to the desired runlevel where's the configuration hassle ?
I publically apologize for my comment for several reasons: 1) something happened with portage that messed up /etc/conf.d/ntp-client (I'd usually think it was my fault, but I doubt I deleted it manually), and I thought yet-another-ntp-configuration-system had been created 2) even if yet-another-ntp-configuration-system had been created, you don't deserve to be the "verbal victim" of my stress (I'm finishing my thesis and trying to keep our research lab running during weekly air conditioning outages, and I guess I wasn't handling things well that night) 3) it turns out I must have been reading /etc/ntp.conf and thought I was reading /etc/conf.d/ntpd. I had thought that the "new" configuration system (which didn't actually exist) was fiddling with the "restrict" and other directives in /etc/ntp.conf based on the contents of /etc/conf.d/ntpd. Please accept my apologies (that doesn't mean you have to post anything ;-) -Paul Komarek
nah, it's ok ... i know the old configuration system (i think pre-4.1.2) was ugly, and i tried a few different things to make it 'nice' ... that led to the 4.1.2 and the system we have now ... i addresses all the known issues and afaik, shouldnt need modification beyond tweaking with unofficial patches (drop-root) ...
