systemd systemd-timesyncd.service 8 systemd-timesyncd.service systemd-timesyncd Network Time Synchronization systemd-timesyncd.service /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-timesyncd systemd-timesyncd is a system service that may be used to synchronize the local system clock with a remote Network Time Protocol server. It also saves the local time to disk every time the clock has been synchronized and uses this to possibly advance the system realtime clock on subsequent reboots to ensure it monotonically advances even if the system lacks a battery-buffered RTC chip. The systemd-timesyncd service specifically implements only SNTP. This minimalistic service will set the system clock for large offsets or slowly adjust it for smaller deltas. More complex use cases are not covered by systemd-timesyncd. The NTP servers contacted are determined from the global settings in timesyncd.conf5, the per-link static settings in .network files, and the per-link dynamic settings received over DHCP. See systemd.network5 for more details. timedatectl1's set-ntp command may be used to enable and start, or disable and stop this service. timedatectl1's timesync-status or show-timesync command can be used to show the current status of this service. /var/lib/systemd/timesync/clock The modification time of this file indicates the timestamp of the last successful synchronization (or at least the systemd build date, in case synchronization was not possible). /run/systemd/timesync/synchronized A file that is touched on each successful synchronization, to assist systemd-time-wait-sync and other applications to detecting synchronization events. systemd1, timesyncd.conf5, systemd.network5, systemd-networkd.service8, systemd-time-wait-sync.service8, timedatectl1, localtime5, hwclock8