[pkg-ntp-maintainers] Bug#731352: ntpdate-debian ignores DHCP ntp-servers option by default

[Peter Eisentraut]

On Wed, 2013-12-04 at 14:13 +0000, Robie Basak wrote:
> However, the logic in /usr/sbin/ntpdate-debian does not use or examine
> /var/lib/ntpdate/default.dhcp if NTPDATE_USE_NTP_CONF is set to yes,
> which is the default, even when the ntp package is not installed and
> /etc/ntp.conf does not exist.

I can see how this can seem suboptimal.

> It seems to me that the setting of NTPDATE_USE_NTP_CONF=yes is
> nonsensical if there is no /etc/ntp.conf, and so should be treated as if
> it says "no" in this case.

Well, it could also be a mistake that /etc/ntp.conf is missing.

> Alternatively, should /var/lib/ntpdate/default.dhcp be added to the
> search list for the NTPDATE_USE_NTP_CONF=yes case, after /etc/ntp.conf?

That wouldn't really be true to the name "use ntp.conf".  We could
conceivably add a mode that says, use any NTP servers you can find, but
that might be bit too unspecific.

Generally, our idea is that ntpdate is deprecated and shouldn't be used
at all, or certainly not be used without an ntp server installed as
well, so other cases might not be well supported.  I would, however,
consider patches.