10

Due to combined use of Debian stretch, that uses systemd by default, and sdwdate (that uses Slow Clock Adjuster ( gh )), my system clock is frequently changed.

As a result journalctl -f gets endlessly spammed by.

[...]
Nov 07 13:46:49 host systemd[766]: Time has been changed
Nov 07 13:46:50 host systemd[766]: Time has been changed
Nov 07 13:46:51 host systemd[766]: Time has been changed
[...]

This was not an issue on Debian wheezy that used sysvinit.

How can systemd be configured to not send the Time has been changed message to the journal?

A related question How to disable systemd's "Time has been changed" message spam in /var/log/syslog on Debian jessie? has been solved, but that solution won't work here.

Improve this question
4
  • systemd cares deeply about timers. This appears to be triggered by updating the hardware clock e.g. hwclock --systohc, are you calling that every second?
    – mr.spuratic
    Nov 11, 2014 at 18:31
  • @mr.spuratic looking at the linked source, that seems to be exactly what's happening.
    – Dan Getz
    Nov 11, 2014 at 19:16
  • Yes, that is what slow clock adjust (sclockadj) is doing. @mr.spuratic
    – adrelanos
    Nov 11, 2014 at 22:43
  • 1
    systemd feature request: option to disable systemd's “Time has been changed” message spam in journal log github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/5207
    – adrelanos
    Feb 2, 2017 at 12:56

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
10
+200

The message comes from src/core/manager.c in the systemd sources. It is hardcoded to use INFO system logging level.

By default systemd logs messages that have INFO level, if you can change that by changing /etc/systemd/system.conf to:

LogLevel=notice

but you will lose quite a few of other informational messages as well.

It might be best to patch src/core/manager.c to read:

 log_struct(LOG_DEBUG,
            MESSAGE_ID(SD_MESSAGE_TIME_CHANGE),
            "MESSAGE=Time has been changed",
            NULL);

(LOG_DEBUG is defined as the next higher, and highest level in sys/syslog.h), or comment out the whole message.

I haven't found a way to only report timer changes that have a minimum size of X seconds. But if that is possible that would undoubtedly make for a more complex and error prone patch.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .