[LEAPSECS] ntp in MacOS Mojave and beyond

[Eric Scace]

On 10/19/2019 8:44 AM, Peter Laws wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 3:11 PM Peter Laws <plaws0 at gmail.com> <mailto:plaws0 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>>> Mac OS allows one choice of NTP server but does not seem to provide for choice of NTP update frequency. Is there a 3rd party software solution, or some other parameter within MacOS that an admin can change to (a) establish a primary and secondary NTP server, and (b) set the frequency of NTP updates?
>> ISTR that MacOS' most recent iteration of NTP has quirks but I don't
>> know what they are.  Previously, it was just a straight NTP client ...
>> and NTP clients manage their update frequency dynamically based on
> MacOS (still) will take multiple servers - just put a comma-separated
> list in the dialog box in preferences.
> 
> Apple took ntpd out of MacOS starting with Mojave (MacOS 10.14.x) and
> replaced it with timed which is not the timed that people usually
> think of.  No idea if it even takes the same config items in
> /etc/ntp.conf even if the server lines are the same as the Olden Day.
> 
> Here is a discussion relevant to NTP on Mojave and later.
> 
> https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250248874 <https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250248874>
> 
> In messing with Mojave just now, you have to be very particular with
> how you enter different servers from the defaults (all Apples
> servers).  I found that editing /etc/ntp.conf doesn't mean the changes
> will show in the preferences dialog.  I did find, though, that if you
> entered them in the dialog box like the following, then it passed
> through to /etc/ntp.conf (and /private/etc/ntp.conf):
> 
> 0.north-america.pool.ntp.org <http://0.north-america.pool.ntp.org/>., 1.north-america.pool.ntp.org <http://1.north-america.pool.ntp.org/>.,
> 2.north-america.pool.ntp.org <http://2.north-america.pool.ntp.org/>., 3.north-america.pool.ntp.org <http://3.north-america.pool.ntp.org/>.
> 
> I'm not certain if the trailing dot on the DNS name (*truly* a FQDN!)
> is required, but the space after the comma seems necessary.
> 
> The bad part is that there doesn't seem to be a way to monitor the
> quality of time - ntpq is nowhere to be found!  All that is left is
> /usr/bin/sntp which isn't much help.

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