If your Samba server has an accurate clock, or if it's a client of one of the Unix network time servers, you can instruct it to advertise itself as an SMB time server by setting the
time
server option as follows:
[global]
time service = yes
The client will still have to request the correct time with the following DOS command, substituting the Samba server name in at the appropriate point:
C:\NET TIME \\
server /YES /SET
This command can be placed in a Windows logon script (see Chapter 6,
Users, Security, and Domains ).
By default, the
time
server option is normally set to
no. If you turn this service on, you can use the command above to keep the client clocks from drifting. Time synchronization is important to clients using programs such as
make, which compile based on the last time the file was changed. Incorrectly synchronized times can cause such programs to either remake all files in a directory, which wastes time, or not recompile a source file that was just modified because of a slight clock drift.
