timed(8) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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TIMED(8)                NetBSD System Manager's Manual                TIMED(8)


NAME

     timed - time server daemon


SYNOPSIS

     timed [-M] [-t] [-d] [-i network] [-n network] [-F host1 host2 ...]


DESCRIPTION

     This is a time server daemon and is normally invoked at boot time from
     the rc(8) file.  It synchronizes the host's time with the time of other
     machines in a local area network running timed.  These time servers will
     slow down the clocks of some machines and speed up the clocks of others
     to bring them to the average network time.  The average network time is
     computed from measurements of clock differences using the ICMP timestamp
     request message.

     The service provided by timed is based  on a master-slave scheme.  When
     timed is started on a machine, it asks the master for the network time
     and sets the host's clock to that time.  After that, it accepts synchro-
     nization messages periodically sent by the master and calls adjtime(2) to
     perform the needed corrections on the host's clock.

     It also communicates with date(1) in order to set the date globally, and
     with timedc(8), a timed control program.  If the machine running the mas-
     ter crashes, then the slaves will elect a new master from among slaves
     running with the -M flag.  A timed running without the -M or -F flags
     will remain a slave.  The -t flag enables timed to trace the messages it
     receives in the file /var/log/timed.log.  Tracing can be turned on or off
     by the program timedc(8).  The -d flag is for debugging the daemon.  It
     causes the program to not put itself into the background.  Normally timed
     checks for a master time server on each network to which it is connected,
     except as modified by the options described below.  It will request syn-
     chronization service from the first master server located.  If permitted
     by the -M flag, it will provide synchronization service on any attached
     networks on which no current master server was detected.  Such a server
     propagates the time computed by the top-level master.  The -n flag, fol-
     lowed by the name of a network which the host is connected to (see
     networks(5)), overrides the default choice of the network addresses made
     by the program.  Each time the -n flag appears, that network name is
     added to a list of valid networks.  All other networks are ignored.  The
     -i flag, followed by the name of a network to which the host is connected
     (see networks(5)), overrides the default choice of the network addresses
     made by the program.  Each time the -i flag appears, that network name is
     added to a list of networks to ignore.  All other networks are used by
     the time daemon.  The -n and -i flags are meaningless if used together.

     timed checks for a master time server on each network to which it is con-
     nected, except as modified by the -n and -i options described above.  If
     it finds masters on more than one network, it chooses one network on
     which to be a "slave," and then periodically checks the other networks to
     see if the masters there have disappeared.

     One way to synchronize a group of machines is to use an NTP daemon to
     synchronize the clock of one machine to a distant standard or a radio
     receiver and -F hostname to tell its timed daemon to trust only itself.

     Messages printed by the kernel on the system console occur with inter-
     rupts disabled.  This means that the clock stops while they are printing.
     A machine with many disk or network hardware problems and consequent mes-
     sages cannot keep good time by itself.  Each message typically causes the
     clock to lose a dozen milliseconds.  A time daemon can correct the
     result.

     Messages in the system log about machines that failed to respond usually
     indicate machines that crashed or were turned off.  Complaints about
     machines that failed to respond to initial time settings are often asso-
     ciated with ``multi-homed'' machines that looked for time masters on more
     than one network and eventually chose to become a slave on the other net-
     work.


WARNINGS

     If two or more time daemons, whether timed, ntpd(8), try to adjust the
     same clock, temporal chaos will result.  If both timed and another time
     daemon are run on the same machine, ensure that the -F flag is used, so
     that timed never attempts to adjust the local clock.

     The protocol is based on UDP/IP broadcasts.  All machines within the
     range of a broadcast that are using the TSP protocol must cooperate.
     There cannot be more than a single administrative domain using the -F
     flag among all machines reached by a broadcast packet.  Failure to follow
     this rule is usually indicated by complaints concerning ``untrusted''
     machines in the system log.


FILES

     /var/log/timed.log        tracing file for timed
     /var/log/timed.masterlog  log file for master timed


SEE ALSO

     date(1), adjtime(2), gettimeofday(2), icmp(4), timedc(8)

     R. Gusella and S. Zatti, TSP: The Time Synchronization Protocol for UNIX
     4.3BSD.


HISTORY

     The timed daemon appeared in 4.3BSD.

NetBSD 2.1                       May 11, 1993                       NetBSD 2.1