From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Dec 11 21:25:04 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: current@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD19416A41F for ; Sun, 11 Dec 2005 21:25:04 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from andy@siliconlandmark.com) Received: from lexi.siliconlandmark.com (lexi.siliconlandmark.com [209.69.98.4]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ECCC643D53 for ; Sun, 11 Dec 2005 21:25:00 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from andy@siliconlandmark.com) Received: from lexi.siliconlandmark.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lexi.siliconlandmark.com (8.13.3/8.13.3) with ESMTP id jBBLOtpA000457; Sun, 11 Dec 2005 16:24:55 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from andy@siliconlandmark.com) Received: from localhost (andy@localhost) by lexi.siliconlandmark.com (8.13.3/8.13.3/Submit) with ESMTP id jBBLOtNC000454; Sun, 11 Dec 2005 16:24:55 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from andy@siliconlandmark.com) X-Authentication-Warning: lexi.siliconlandmark.com: andy owned process doing -bs Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2005 16:24:55 -0500 (EST) From: Andre Guibert de Bruet To: Sten Spans In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20051211161558.Q17429@lexi.siliconlandmark.com> References: <20051211105118.X17429@lexi.siliconlandmark.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X-SL-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-SL-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (score=-2.53, required 6, autolearn=not spam, AWL 0.07, BAYES_00 -2.60) X-MailScanner-From: andy@siliconlandmark.com Cc: current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: The /etc/ntp/ directory. X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2005 21:25:04 -0000 On Sun, 11 Dec 2005, Sten Spans wrote: > On Sun, 11 Dec 2005, Andre Guibert de Bruet wrote: > >> I have a 7.0-CURRENT machine that I have upgraded time and time again, >> since the 5.3-CURRENT days. While looking into setting up ntpd, I came >> across the empty /etc/ntp/ directory. After perusing the man file, and the >> rcNG startup scripts, I don't see anything that makes a reference to this >> directory. The locations that I do find are: >> >> ntpd.conf: /etc/ntpd.conf >> ntp.drift: /var/db/ntpd.drift >> ntpd.pid: /var/run/ntpd.pid >> Docs: /usr/share/doc/ntp >> >> I checked a fresh install of 6.0-RELEASE and this directory appears there >> too but again, without any references. On 4.11-STABLE, it does not exist. >> Is there any use at all for this directory? > > The most common usage is with an ntpd running as user ntp. > This user normally can't write to /var/db/ ( ntpd renames > a temporary ntpd.drift.XXXX to ntpd.drift ). > So ntpd.drift is moved to /etc/ntp where user ntp > does have write permissions. > > Not that FreeBSD supports non-root ntpd (afaik). Thanks for the insight. FreeBSD does not ship with an ntp user. I do however, see the facilities in place in the rcNG script for chrooting. So if ntpd is running as root because clock_settime(2) and friends require the effective user ID of the super-user, what is the functional purpose of this directory? Thanks, Andy /* Andre Guibert de Bruet * 6f43 6564 7020 656f 2e74 4220 7469 6a20 */ /* Code poet / Sysadmin * 636f 656b 2e79 5320 7379 6461 696d 2e6e */ /* GSM: +1 734 846 8758 * 5520 494e 2058 6c73 7565 6874 002e 0000 */ /* WWW: siliconlandmark.com * Tormenting bytes since 1980. */