"tidy" not deleting files from the future

[Paul Krizak]

Occasionally we install a system that has the hardware clock slightly 
out of sync.  In the case where the clock is ahead of the "real" time, 
"tidy" seems to break.  The tidy section looks like this:

tidy:

# Remove extraneous network configuration scripts
net::
    /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts pattern=ifcfg-eth1 age=0 recurse=0
    /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts pattern=ifcfg-eth2 age=0 recurse=0
    /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts pattern=ifcfg-eth3 age=0 recurse=0
    /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts pattern=ifcfg-eth4 age=0 recurse=0

    # Remove securetty to allow root logins
    /etc pattern=securetty age=0 recurse=0


When run on these machines that have the system clock off (note that 
since it's a fresh install, *all* files on the disk have 
atime/mtime/ctime's that are in the future by a few minutes) cfengine 
generates messages like this:

cfengine:modi010: ALERT: atime for /etc/securetty is in the future. 
Check system clock!

And the file doesn't get deleted.  This then screws up the machine in an 
obscure way that is specific to our installation procedures and beyond 
the scope of this e-mail.  Thus "Just wait until the next time cfengine 
runs and it'll get deleted" is not an acceptable solution.

Is there some way to tell cfengine, "Irregardless of anything about the 
file except for its existence, please delete this file"?  I don't see 
anything like a "force" in the documentation.

--

Paul Krizak                         5900 E. Ben White Blvd. MS 625
Advanced Micro Devices              Austin, TX  78741
Linux/Unix Systems Engineering      Phone: (512) 602-8775
Microprocessor Solutions Sector