On Wed, 2003-09-10 at 07:01, Nick Rout wrote: > Trevor de Stigter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Is there an atomic clock time synchronisation program for linux > > similar to the recently released one for Windows which pings the NTIS > > server and adjusts the computer RTC from the data received. I can find > > plenty of network time servers and clients but want something which > > can be accessed by a single stand alone computer. > > > ntp will do what you want.
ntpdate is simpler to use ... :-) Trevor, rather than waste the resources of the few atomic clocks that are on the network, the NTP system cascades out the correct time via a hierarchy of servers, all of which adjust their own clocks by speeding them up, or slowing them down, rather than just "jumping" to the right time, and then making that time available to other machines. If you have an NTP client program of any kind, your machine will be able to contact a local time server[1], and get accurate time from there, rather than try to connect to something the other side of the world. For example, if you have a business with 100 servers, and each of them needs to check it's clock every 15 minutes, setting up one of those servers to be the local NTP master saves you a lot of external network traffic! Only one machine needs to connect to a time server on the Internet, and the rest can get time from it. Now, in the case of a home PC, you're generally not worried about setting up such a system, and you definately don't need to worry about speeding-up or slowing-down the clock - jumping it is probably the right thing to do. The ntpdate program will do that for you - it uses the NTP server network, but only when you ask for it ... I see you're on Paradise, so I'd suggest (as root) [2]:- # ntpdate -b time.paradise.net.nz This will query Paradise's time server 4 times (in order to get a good reading, taking into account round-trip time variations), and then force your system clock to jump straight to the given time. You can use a -v option to see in more detail what's happening. -jim [1] Is there an authoratative source for NTP servers in NZ? I see a list gets occasionally posted here, http://lists.ethernal.org/cantlug-0212/msg00451.html ... [2] I can't connect to time.paradise.net.nz from a non-paradise connection. This may be deliberate, or the time server might have gone away. I can connect to an ihug machine :- (using -q so I only query, not actually set the time) [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ ntpdate -qv -p 8 tk1.ihug.co.nz 10 Sep 09:32:58 ntpdate[19070]: ntpdate [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Aug 18 22:41:04 UTC 2003 (2) server 203.109.252.7, stratum 2, offset 0.004453, delay 0.04359 10 Sep 09:32:59 ntpdate[19070]: adjust time server 203.109.252.7 offset 0.004453 sec
