[CentOS] ntpd date sync before service startup

Thu May 15 21:24:05 UTC 2008
Joe Pruett <joey at clean.q7.com>

>> Hello,
>> in system-config-date i have checkbox synchronize date before service
>> startup.
>> Which config switch,file does it affect? I want to turn it on on my CentOS
>> machine without xauth , just editing config files , i was hoping it could 
>> be
>> in /etc/sysconfig/ntpd but no.
>
> ok ... I do not see exactly where, but it seems that somewhere a -x switch is 
> set and the file /etc/ntp/step-tickers gets the server name to sync from.
>
> I do no see a -x switch anywhere though

the -x switch is part of the init script.  it isn't actually handled by 
ntpd.  the init script will use step-tickers if it has entries, or pull 
the server lines from ntp.conf, and then invoke ntpdate with the list it 
figures out.