IP Networking

Most services can re-load/re-read their configuration file through the command "service xxxx reload", which is usually implemented by "kill -HUP service_pid" .

for NTPD service, "service ntpd restart" and "service ntpd reload" are identical in /etc/rc.d/init.d/ntpd. what's more, "kill -HUP ntpd_pid" command will cause ntpd service to restart.

Hence, if we want ntpd to re-read its configuration file after run-time configuration, do we have to restart ntpd? Is there any way to reconfigure ntpd without restarting it ?

Thanks!!

ntpd does not handle the SIGHUP signal. This means when ntpd receives HUP, it is terminated. The ntpd script might wrap the ntpd call in a while loop, so that it restarts the daemon after HUP is received.

At any rate, there's no way to reload the ntpd daemon without restarting it.

See NTP home page for more info.