The HTTP Time Protocol (HTP) is used to synchronize a computers time with web servers as reference time source. This program can be used instead of ntpdate or similar in networks that have a firewall blocking the NTP port.
Htpdate will synchronize the computer time to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), using the timestamps from HTTP headers found in web server responses (the HEAD method will be used to get the information).
Htpdate works through proxy servers. Accuracy of htpdate will be usually within 0.5 seconds (better with multiple servers).
To allow the snap package to adjust the time you need to connect the time-control interface after installation and restart the daemon:
snap connect htpdate-daemon:time-control
. You can set the list of hosts (default: google.com) to query for time via a snap setting like:
snap set htpdate-daemon hosts="google.com www.linux.org"
You can also set additional options for the daemon
snap set htpdate-daemon extra-opts="-d"
It is recommended that you disable your hosts ntp time sync mechanism when using htpdate-daemon.
Snaps are applications packaged with all their dependencies to run on all popular Linux distributions from a single build. They update automatically and roll back gracefully.
Snaps are discoverable and installable from the Snap Store, an app store with an audience of millions.
If you’re running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) or later, including Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa), you don’t need to do anything. Snap is already installed and ready to go.
For versions of Ubuntu between 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) and 15.10 (Wily Werewolf), as well as Ubuntu flavours that don’t include snap by default, snap can be installed from the Ubuntu Software Centre by searching for snapd.
Alternatively, snapd can be installed from the command line:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapd
Either log out and back in again, or restart your system, to ensure snap’s paths are updated correctly.
To install htpdate-daemon, simply use the following command:
sudo snap install htpdate-daemon
Browse and find snaps from the convenience of your desktop using the snap store snap.
Interested to find out more about snaps? Want to publish your own application? Visit snapcraft.io now.
