Problems with ntpdate by cron

Hello everyone!
I try to syncronize the system-time by using cron an ntpdate.
The concerning line in crontab is 1 * * * * ntpdate -s ip-address of time server
and by using the option -s the logging output is diverted to /var/log/syslog. In the next line
you see such a logging:
Aug 1 09:01:01 solarlinux /USR/SBIN/CRON[29560]: (root) CMD (ntpdate -s ...)

But if I check the remainig offset by ntpdate -q ip-address of time server,
its value doesn't become smaller, it seems as if ntpdate executed by cron does not
syncronize the time. Only if I execute the command manually in a shell, the offset
becomes notable smaller.

Does anybody have an idea how to solve this problem?
Thanks in advance!

Michael Doepper

Create a separate bash script with the ntpdate command, and call that from cron. For some reason, calling commands directly from cron doesn't work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by michael.doepper

Hello everyone!
I try to syncronize the system-time by using cron an ntpdate.
The concerning line in crontab is 1 * * * * ntpdate -s ip-address of time server
and by using the option -s the logging output is diverted to /var/log/syslog. In the next line
you see such a logging:
Aug 1 09:01:01 solarlinux /USR/SBIN/CRON[29560]: (root) CMD (ntpdate -s ...)

But if I check the remainig offset by ntpdate -q ip-address of time server,
its value doesn't become smaller, it seems as if ntpdate executed by cron does not
syncronize the time. Only if I execute the command manually in a shell, the offset
becomes notable smaller.

Does anybody have an idea how to solve this problem?
Thanks in advance!

Michael Doepper

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Thanks to Dave Bechtel for the response. But even if a seperate bash script was used, I had no success.
I found out, that the command in cron has to contain the full path of the command, instead of ntpdate
/usr/sbin/ntpdate has to be run.

Best regards
Michael Dopper