[Dclug] [Ma-linux] "Time"

[Alan McConnell]

On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 10:25:23AM -0400, Richard Rognlie wrote:
> 
> If you are not already running NTP, you should.
	Thanks for reminding me.  I don't think I need another demon.
	Running a script when I boot -- I shut down at night, boot in
	the morning -- will be good enough for me.

> pool.ntp.org is a group of virtual servers that serve up NTP data
> freely  See http://www.pool.ntp.org/ for more info.
	This is great, since it seems to indicate that a small fish
	like me can use 'pool.ntp.org' without placing undue load
	on any of the primary timeservers

> if ntpd is not currently running, you could do the following
> 
>         /usr/sbin/ntpdate pool.ntp.org
>         hwclock --systohc
		These two lines by themselves seem almost perfect.
		But I have been trained<g> to check the exit status
		of calls.  So my script reads:
(start)--------------------------
#  This short script follows advice from Richard Rognlie, 25 Aug 08

val=1    # Start off with val a "wrong" value
TIMESERVER="pool.ntp.org"  # this URL will give me "some" timeserver!

/usr/sbin/ntpdate $TIMESERVER
val=$?
# val should now be 0 if ntpdate executed correctly

#  echo "val is now $val"   Debugging!

if [ $val -eq 0 ]; then
  hwclock --systohc
else
  echo  "Call to ntpdate failed."
fi

                                 ------------------------(finish)

(and now actually my call to hwclock fails on my  etch   machine!)

Anyway, my thanks to Richard, and to  Jesse Becker, for their
replies and helpful aid.

Alan

-- 
Alan McConnell :  http://patriot.net/users/alan
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