[pkg-ntp-maintainers] Bug#454059: no way to statically over-ride ntp server list if provided by dhcp

[Rick Thomas]

Package: ntp
Version: 1:4.2.4p4+dfsg-2
Severity: normal

If the DHCP server provides a list of NTP servers, the 1:4.2.2.p3+dfsg-1 patch
will use them to over-ride a static list of servers in ntp.conf.  If the static
list in ntp.conf is actually wanted, there is no way to tell it to ignore the
list from DHCP.

Also, if the DHCP server provides a different list of ntp servers on a frequent
basis (possibly thru some misguided attempt to "spread the load") the existing
code will stop and restart the NTP daemon every time the list of servers changes.

But NTP is not designed to be stopped and restarted frequently.  I can take a
long time to reach steady-state after being restarted, during which time the
clock is less than optimally stable.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: powerpc (ppc)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.22-3-powerpc
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages ntp depends on:
ii  adduser                       3.105      add and remove users and groups
ii  libc6                         2.6.1-1    GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcap1                       1:1.10-14  support for getting/setting POSIX.
ii  libreadline5                  5.2-3      GNU readline and history libraries
ii  libssl0.9.8                   0.9.8g-1   SSL shared libraries
ii  lsb-base                      3.1-24     Linux Standard Base 3.1 init scrip
ii  netbase                       4.30       Basic TCP/IP networking system

Versions of packages ntp recommends:
ii  perl                          5.8.8-12   Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 

-- no debconf information