dtsdate(1m)dtsdate(1m)NAMEdtsdate - Sets local clock from a remote dtsd server host
SYNOPSISdtsdate [-q] [-s] [-u] remote_host [nsecs]
ARGUMENTS
Queries the difference in time between the local host and the remote
host, but does not change the local clock. The returned result (2 if
the time would have been reset, 1 if there was an error, and 0 other‐
wise) can be used by a script to determine what action to take. Causes
dtsdate to work silently, without showing the time. Shows the time in
UTC, rather than in the current time zone. The name or the IP address
of a remote host that has a dtsd server. An integer giving the number
of seconds by which the remote and local host times can differ, without
the local host's clock being reset. If nsecs is 0, or if it is not
specified, it is treated as if it were extremely large, and no reset‐
ting occurs.
DESCRIPTION
The dtsdate command sets the local clock of a system to be the same as
the host remote_host, running a dtsd server. The purpose of dtsdate is
to ensure that clock skew is minimized at initial cell configuration or
at host instantiation, because it is difficult to start DCE and its
components if the skew is too great.
Clocks among all DCE components must be within five minutes of each
other, to prevent failure of CDS and of security. Some DCE components
have even more stringent requirements. For instance, a DFS file server
cannot start if its local host differs from other DFS hosts by more
than ten seconds.
The dtsdate command can be used for adjusting a clock backwards, before
DCE is running on a host. Adjusting a clock backwards while DCE is
running can cause many difficulties, because security and file system
software generally require system time to increase monotonically.
NOTES
The remote host must be running as a DTS server. This means that the
dtsd on that system must have registered the DTS management interface,
because dtsdate uses the management call to get the current time from
that host.
For dtsdate to be able to set the clock, it must run as a privileged
user (root).
EXIT VALUE
If the -q argument is given, dtsdate returns 2 if the remote time and
local time differ by more than nsecs, 1 if there was an error, and 0
otherwise.
If the -q argument is not given, dtsdate returns 1 if there was an
error, and 0 otherwise.
EXAMPLES
With only the host argument:
dtsdate remotehost
dtsdate prints out the time on the remote host.
In this example:
dtsdate-s -q remotehost 10
dtsdate does not print out the remote host's time. If the times differ
by more than 10 seconds, it returns the value of 1, otherwise 0.
In the next example:
dtsdate-s remotehost 10 dtsdate sets the clock if it differed from
the remote clock by more than 10 seconds. It does this work silently,
because of the -s option.
The following example shows a shell script that uses the return value
of dtsdate:
dtsdate-s -q remhost 10
result = $?
if [ $result -eq 0 ] ; then
echo "Time is within tolerence."
elif [ $result -eq 1 ] ; then
echo "Could not contact remote host." >&2
else # result = 2
if dtsdate remhost 10; then # it failed!
echo "Could not set the clock." >&2
fi
fi
RELATED INFORMATION
Commands: dtsd (1m)
dtsdate(1m)
