On 07/25/2015 at 08:08 PM, Bob Bernstein wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Jul 2015, Iain M Conochie wrote:
>
>>> No. This is an incorrect response.
>
>> Really?
>
> Um...your own homework, below, suggests that ntp is not the only
> package that performs the task in question. Since ntpdate does not
> depend on ntp, then I have to say, simply REALLY!
It's the only package (at least of the ones he listed) which contains a
time-sync daemon, though:
>> apt-cache search ntp | grep ^ntp
>> ntp - Network Time Protocol daemon and utility programs
This provides the daemon.
>> ntp-doc - Network Time Protocol documentation
This is documentation.
>> ntpdate - client for setting system time from NTP servers
This provides a client, not a daemon. It talks to the daemon across the
network, which is why there's no dependency.
>> ntpstat - show network time protocol (ntp) status
This provides a utility program of some kind. At a glance, I can't quite
work out what the utility does, but it's clearly not a daemon.
> My beef here is with the original respondent, whose glib one work
> reply ("ntp") suggested that was the be-all and end-all of the
> question. I have run out of patience with the self-appointed experts
> on this list who are clearly suffering from delusions of adequacy, if
> not outright IQ insufficiency.
Chill, dude. This is bordering on code-of-conduct questionability.
The original question was "What package contains the daemon that updates
the time from a central site?".
The ntp package contains such a daemon - indeed, until systemd, almost
certainly the primary such daemon. (And AFAIK the only reason it might
not be the primary such daemon now is systemd's "we're already here, so
you might as well use our tools instead of looking for alternatives"
effect, analogously to how IE got its dominant market share.)
In the "systemd era", just listing ntp is indeed incomplete, and I
wouldn't have been comfortable giving an answer which didn't mention
other options myself - but for someone who wants to install a time
daemon without having to worry about ancillary details, ntp is the
package they probably want, so it's not entirely unreasonable to give it
as a flat answer to a question which specifically asks for the name of a
package.
--
The Wanderer
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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