-l will cause ntpd to log a message each time the logical clock is changed. Normally, do not specify this option except to gather statistical information for analyzing the logical clock behavior. If the -l option is specified, a message will be logged approximately every 2 minutes.
-s will prevent ntpd from adjusting the local clock.
The ntpd daemon uses adjtime(2) to adjust the clock of the host by a small amount in order to keep the clock synchronized. If the local clock exceeds the ``correct'' time by some threshold, then settimeofday(2) is used to make a step adjustment of the local clock.
When ntpd(8) is started on the machine, it reads configuration information from netinfo, which contains information about other ntp time servers and host specific information. Configuration information is created and managed by the HostManager application.
The driftfile command can be used to specify the name of the file from which the drift compensation register will be loaded at initialization time, and to which updated values will be written. The drift compensation value describes the intrinsic drift of the host clock. By default, the file /etc/ntp.drift is used.
Currently, three time server specifications are supported: master, clone and client.
It is recommended that the bulk of the machines configured should be clients, as this will minimize resource demand on the remote NTP server. If the host will be serving as a redistribution point for a cluster of hosts, it should be set up as a clone or master server. Configuration of servers is accomplished through the HostManager application.
/etc/ntp.drift Stores local machines drift parameters.