New ntp install from tarball

[Tom H]

On Thu, Dec 25, 2014 at 5:54 AM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:
> On Thursday 25 December 2014 04:28:05 Tom H did opine


>> In the repo-provided ntp package, the driftfile can be set either via
>> "-f /path/to/file" in "/etc/default/ntp" or "driftfile /path/to/file"
>> in "/etc/ntp.conf", with the default being "/etc/ntp.drift" (unless
>> Ubuntu patches in a different default).
>
> Apparently they do, Tom, its in /var/lib/ntp/ as "drift".  Because clock
> drift is usually pretty slow, I wrote a monitoring utility several years
> ago, which does an hourly check, its output to a log file generates this:
>
> Thu Dec 25 09:55:25 UTC 2014
> drift=-47.440
>      remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
> ==============================================================================
> *juniperberry.ca 131.188.3.220    2 u  677 1024  377  111.393    1.867   1.631
> +ntp.sunflower.c 132.236.56.250   3 u   43 1024  377   55.996  -10.732   7.842

Ubuntu sets the driftfile via "/etc/ntp.conf":

# grep drift /etc/ntp.conf
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift

What's this utility?


> Now I need to study the docs and see if I can reduce the server loading by
> 2 or 3 machines by using this one as the local server. No use wasting
> their bandwidth.

"server <local_server>" in "/etc/ntp.conf".


> Its also Christmas Day here in this time zone, so I hope everyone who so
> freely offers their help on this list will have a most enjoyable day with
> their families.
>
> Have a Happy New Year too.

I'm at work with just one PitA colleague, whom I'm bccing on this email. :)

We celebrated with some Lebanese takeaway with a glass of red each. So
it hasn't been an ALL-work day!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too.