Synchronizing the time of your computer is common practice on Linux. However, most distributions tend to use the ntp daemon to synchronize the time of a client. This seems to be a bit much for most systems. On my clients I use ntpdate. ntpdate even works for most servers. If you use Debian, just get it with apt-get.
apt-get install ntpdate
The default is to synchronize the time at system boot. If you use a client that is restarted often enough this works perfectly for you. If you do not restart your client regularly or you run a server that does not need to provide time service to other clients you may as well set up a daily (or even hourly) cron-job.
#!/bin/sh# /etc/cron.hourly/ntpdate# launch ntpdate for two servers (in case one fails)ntpdate ptbtime1.ptb.dentpdate ptbtime2.ptb.de
Make your cron-job file executable.
chmod u+x /etc/cron.hourly/ntpdate
That’s it. Now the time will be set to the time of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (Physical Technical Federal Institute), that is responsible for maintaining the correct legal time in Germany. They provide time service for most radio-controlled clocks throughout Germany and Europe, too.
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