# ntpdate deprecated in favour of ntpd -q yet different result

## koan

With ntpdate running at boot time, we are saying "set the date to whatever the time servers say it is, no matter what".

With ntpdate being deprecated, the new approach is to use ntpd -q.  However, this is saying "set the date to whatever the time servers say it is, as long as it isn't different to the current clock by more than 17 minutes".  Otherwise leave it is is.

From my perspective, whatever timeservers are available at boot time, they are much more likely to have a good idea of what the time is right now than the hardware clock on the motherboard.  Particularly if the reason for the boot was dirty shutdown and hwclock -systohc didn't get a chance to run.

The 17 minute premise of ntpd is all very well under normal circumstances, where it has been syncing all day and suddenly there is a big discrepency - it makes sense to ignore such a shift. But it makes no sense at all at boot time.  So it doesn't sync and services and VMs begin with the incorrect time.  Or don't begin because they also recognise something is bonkers with the server time.

What is everyone else using?

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## massimo

You could add -g in /etc/conf.d/ntpd

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## koan

Ohhh.  Ahem.

[*walks away with a tuneless whistle*]

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