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For example, could I set the ntpd time five minutes ahead of the system time?

I know I can set the time manually without running (or even installing) ntpd, but it's not obvious to me how to run ntpd without it setting the system time.

user7916
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The question is why would you want to do this? NTP is designed to ensure systems have the correct time (usualy within milliseconds of atomic clocks).

It is possible but not recommended. You can use your local clock as the only other source. Alternatively, you could hack the code to sync with a shadow time with the desired offset from the system time.

If you are doing this to show the time as it will be in five minutes, then this may be the wrong solution. It may be better to create a custom time zone with an offset of 5 minutes from the reference timezone.

BillThor
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  • Re: "You can use your local clock as the only other source", how would this get ntpd (via, say, "ntpdate") to give a time distinct from that shown by "date"? – user7916 Jul 15 '16 at 22:28
  • @user7916 You host would be an NTP time server. Other hosts on your network, or ntpdate on your host would get whatever time your server clock says it is. I've run across system advertising stratum 0 (I'm an atomic clock) with times off by weeks when scanning systems. I didn't choose them as time sources. – BillThor Jul 16 '16 at 03:31