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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-30T02:56:52+00:00

I have two NTP servers with different IPs. I’m trying to make a bash

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I have two NTP servers with different IPs.

I’m trying to make a bash script that synchronizes the system clock with “ntpdate” client.
If first NTP server doesn’t respond, my script should try to connect to second NTP server.

I tried to make a system variable called RESULT in this way:
RESULT = ntpdate 192.168.100.41

NTP synchronization works, but when I make an “echo $RESULT”, its value is always 0.
So my question is:
Is there a correct way to do this? How?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Just check execution status stored in $?:

    ntpdate foo.com
17 Feb 12:35:13 ntpdate[16218]: no server suitable for synchronization found
echo $?
1

ntpdate 1.europe.pool.ntp.org
17 Feb 12:36:26 ntpdate[16220]: step time server 109.230.243.8 offset 27.014301 sec
echo $?
0

    Alternatively, ir you are on Debian, use ntpdate-debian and specify server list in /etc/default/ntpdate, e.g.:

    NTPSERVERS="0.debian.pool.ntp.org 1.debian.pool.ntp.org 2.debian.pool.ntp.org"
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