xntpd "broke" and not able to start

[laul]

By the way, just to add, the binaries ntptrace, and ntpq were also broken similarly. Though ntpdate was fine.

[Bill Hassell]

> i did a "ll /usr/sbin/xntpd" and the size of the binary was 0. How and when it ever got to that, is hard to trace. Possibly when the clock was set back, the binary broke.

Binaries do not break. The program is just a simple file used to provide the code in memory. When it runs, any program problems will have no effect on the original file. Zero indicates that someone (as root) zeroed the file, perhaps with an inadvertent ">" on the command line.

The fact that other NTP executables have been damaged does warrant investigation. Start by using grep ntp on the command history for root (.sh_history). Setting the time back a few seconds or minutes or hours will not damage the binaries. I would look for other zero-length files in /usr/bin and /usr/sbin.

[laul]

Hmm, unfortunately my sh_history do not keep things more than a few weeks. Perhaps it's time to install sudo. Well, once again thanks to all. Appreciate your help.

[Bill Hassell]

Add this line to /etc/profile so every user gets a useful shell history:

export HISTSIZE=5000