Install htpdate with Homebrew, apk, apt, MacPorts, Nix

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository

Commands and aliases

• htpdate

Project history

The upstream site and repository describe HTP as synchronizing time with web servers as reference sources. htpdate retrieves date and time through HTTP requests, can behave similarly to a browser, works through proxy servers, and can run as a daemon for ongoing synchronization.

The project preserves a pragmatic limitation in its own documentation: usual accuracy is within about 0.5 seconds and can improve with multiple servers, but users needing better time discipline should use an NTP-family package. That framing explains htpdate's evolution as a fallback or constrained-network utility rather than a replacement for NTP, OpenNTPD, or chrony.

Adoption history

The input package facts record htpdate in Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, MacPorts, Nix, and Alpine. That packaging spread is notable for a small tool because its value is situational: it becomes useful exactly on machines and networks where the usual UDP-based time-sync path is not available.

How it is used

htpdate is used to query one or more web servers, estimate clock offset from HTTP date headers, and either report or set/adjust local time. The man page and README emphasize proxy support, daemon use, IPv4/IPv6 options, HTTP/1.0 versus HTTP/1.1 behavior, and the tradeoff between convenience and precision.

Why package nerds care

For package nerds, htpdate is interesting because it is the kind of tiny utility that justifies a package slot through an edge case. It exists for restricted networks, proxy-only hosts, rescue scenarios, and systems where installing a full time-sync stack is more machinery than the job requires.

Timeline

• 2021: The twekkel/htpdate tag stream includes v1.3.0 from December.
• 2024: The tag stream includes v2.0.0 from September.
• 2024: Alpine package metadata records htpdate 2.0.0 in the community repository.
• Package-manager era: The input package facts record htpdate in Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, MacPorts, Nix, and Alpine.

Related projects

• htpdate is related to NTP clients such as ntpdate, ntpd, OpenNTPD, and chrony, but trades precision for HTTP reachability and proxy compatibility. The same maintainer also publishes `httpdate`, another HTTP-based time synchronization tool with a precision-oriented approach.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/twekkel/htpdate/commits/01d5e9584b22ebf9b166213bfe3f221c039ec4b8
• https://api.github.com/repos/twekkel/htpdate/commits/e906bf96eac9ef5a3c0e7546724ff9b2ee817502
• https://api.github.com/repos/twekkel/htpdate/tags?per_page=20
• https://github.com/twekkel/htpdate
• https://github.com/twekkel/htpdate/blob/master/htpdate.8
• https://github.com/twekkel/httpdate
• https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/package/edge/community/x86/htpdate
• https://www.vervest.org/htp/