On Wed, Jan 26, 2000 at 09:27:26AM +1000, Danny Thomas wrote:
> enami tsugutomo <enami@but-b.or.jp> wrote:
> >"Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@research.att.com> writes:
> >> At least in my kernel (1.4P, the Comdex snapshot), I believe you
> >> can do the same with sysctl:
> >>       sysctl -w kern.rtc_offset=xxx
> >
> >You can read but can't write.  Since the value is used early boot
> >stage, setting it after boot is not so useful.
> 
> when running ntp, is there some way to have it set BIOS clock ?

I think you're Confused.  When the NetBSD kernel adjusts its notion of
the time, including with NTP, it adjusts the "BIOS clock".  That's all.

> if this sysctl was writable, you could do that via a script
> just to keep it within a second or so of real time for the next boot

I think you don't understand what this sysctl does.  It retrieves the 
*offset* between the NetBSD kernel's idea of the time and what the BIOS 
clock says -- that is, the number of hours by which the BIOS clock is
offset from UTC.  It has nothing to do with adjusting the system time.