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Please see the NTP 4.2.8p18 Changelog for details.

Bug 1130 - ntpd does not give helpful exist message of clock drift greater then 16 minutes
Summary: ntpd does not give helpful exist message of clock drift greater then 16 minutes
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: ntp
Classification: Unclassified
Component: ntpd (show other bugs)
Version: 4.2.4
Hardware: PC Linux
: P4 minor
Assignee: Harlan Stenn
URL:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2009-02-11 14:49 UTC by Matt Darcy
Modified: 2012-08-07 04:24 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description Matt Darcy 2009-02-11 14:49:04 UTC 
when using ntpd 4.2.4 on Fedora 9 Linux platform on x86_64 architechture, I
experienced a situation where one of my servers clocks drifted by 30 minutes.

Upon trying to restart ntp, ntp would die without any on screen warning, or log
warning.

Only through a helpful reminder from another user did I remember the 16 minute
drift limit. It would be helpful if a message could be displaced in this exit
condtition "warning clock drift over 16 minutes, cannot start ntpd die" or "ntpd
drift greater than max limit, use -g option and restart" somthing informative
that at least gives the reason it is refusing to start.

The answer is obvious in the man page, but without being aware of the reason it
is not easy to find.
Comment 1 Danny Mayer 2009-02-15 02:27:37 UTC 
Yes this should be fixed by adding a message to the syslog. I'd have to find out
where it exits.

Danny
Comment 2 Dave Hart 2009-02-15 20:40:14 UTC 
ntp_proto.c:

	switch (local_clock(peer, epoch, sys_offset)) {

	/*
	 * Clock exceeds panic threshold. Life as we know it ends.
	 */
	case -1:
#ifdef HAVE_LIBSCF_H
		/*
		 * For Solaris enter the maintenance mode.
		 */
		if ((fmri = getenv("SMF_FMRI")) != NULL) {
			if (smf_maintain_instance(fmri, 0) < 0) {
				printf("smf_maintain_instance: %s\n",
				    scf_strerror(scf_error()));
				exit(1);
			}
			/*
			 * Sleep until SMF kills us.
			 */
			for (;;)
				pause();
		}
#endif /* HAVE_LIBSCF_H */
		exit (-1);
Comment 3 Harlan Stenn 2012-08-07 04:24:37 UTC 
That code fragment still does not contain a log message.

Dave Hart, are you up for taking this one (ntp_proto.c)?