frustration with NTP logging

[Dean S. Messing]

When I start `ntpd' (service ntpd start)
messages like the following are inserted in /var/log/messages:

Dec 26 22:00:25 medulla ntpd[17171]: ntpd 4.2.4p2 at 1.1495-o Tue Aug 21 13:58:55 UTC 2007 (1)
Dec 26 22:00:25 medulla ntpd[17172]: precision = 1.000 usec
Dec 26 22:00:26 medulla ntpd[17172]: Listening on interface #0 wildcard, 0.0.0.0#123 Disabled
Dec 26 22:00:26 medulla ntpd[17172]: Listening on interface #1 wildcard, ::#123 Disabled
Dec 26 22:00:26 medulla ntpd[17172]: Listening on interface #2 vmnet8, fe80::250:56ff:fec0:8#123 Enabled
Dec 26 22:00:26 medulla ntpd[17172]: Listening on interface #3 lo, ::1#123 Enabled
Dec 26 22:00:26 medulla ntpd[17172]: Listening on interface #4 eth0, fe80::219:b9ff:fe35:84f#123 Enabled
Dec 26 22:00:26 medulla ntpd[17172]: Listening on interface #5 lo, 127.0.0.1#123 Enabled
Dec 26 22:00:26 medulla ntpd[17172]: Listening on interface #6 eth0, 172.29.226.11#123 Enabled
Dec 26 22:00:26 medulla ntpd[17172]: Listening on interface #7 vmnet8, 10.10.10.1#123 Enabled
Dec 26 22:00:26 medulla ntpd[17172]: kernel time sync status 0040
Dec 26 22:00:26 medulla ntpd[17172]: frequency initialized 159.642 PPM from /var/lib/ntp/drift


Instead, I would like to get these to go into "/var/log/ntplog".  But
try as I might, I've failed miserably and am ready to go bang my head
against the wall.

What is the Magick Solution?!?

Here's what I've tried:

I changed 

*.info;mail.none;authpriv.none;cron.none             	/var/log/messages

to 

*.info;mail.none;authpriv.none;cron.none;ntpd.none     	/var/log/messages

and added

# Log all the ntpd messages in one place.
ntpd.*							/var/log/ntplog

in "/etc/syslog.conf" and restarted `syslogd' (making sure there that
"/var/log/ntplog" exists.)  Then I stopped and started `ntpd'.

Nada!  I now get no messages anywhere.

I then tried adding

logfile /var/log/ntplog
logconfig =all    # log all messages 

to "/etc/ntp.conf" and restarted ntpd.

I now get some _other_ diagnostic messages in "/var/log/ntplog",
messages like:

26 Dec 22:35:34 ntpd[18248]: system event 'event_restart' (0x01) status 'sync_alarm, sync_unspec, 1 event, event_unspec' (0xc010)
26 Dec 22:35:36 ntpd[18248]: peer 155.101.3.114 event 'event_reach' (0x84) status 'unreach, conf, 1 event, event_reach' (0x8014)
26 Dec 22:35:37 ntpd[18248]: peer 208.75.88.4 event 'event_reach' (0x84) status 'unreach, conf, 1 event, event_reach' (0x8014)
26 Dec 22:35:37 ntpd[18248]: peer 216.184.20.83 event 'event_reach' (0x84) status 'unreach, conf, 1 event, event_reach' (0x8014)

But I don't get the "Listening" messages anywhere.
Finally, leaving the above "logfile" lines in "/etc/ntp.conf" I tried putting
"syslog.conf" back the way it was to start with (no references to `ntpd').

Now the "Listening" lines are going back into "/var/log/messages".

Will somebody who understands system logging please tell me what is
going on here, 'cause I'm lost.

Thanks.
Bang, bang, bang, bang. :-)

Dean