[ntp:questions] A Suggestion For Abolishing the Leap Second

mills at udel.edu mills at udel.edu
Wed Jun 6 17:20:39 UTC 2007


Guy,

The actual kernel code is available at 
ftp://ftp.udel.edu/pub/ntp/software/nanokernel.tar.gz. The kernel clock 
reading routine insures that, even if the seconds portion of the 
in-kernel clock steps back, the clock reading is monotone definite 
increasing. While all kernels I have seen preserve this model, there 
could be some that don't understand it.

The API (ntp_adjtime() returns the clock state values in such a way that 
applications can know the leap is in progress and label the second 
accordingly. Note also the TAI offset is atomically updated as well.

Guy Macon wrote:

> Martin Burnicki wrote:
> 
>>Guy Macon <http://www.guymacon.com/> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>David L. Mills wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>It is important that the leap be substantially complete by the end of
>>>>the inserted second, which is done by stopping or almost stopping the
>>>>clock for one second.
>>>
>>>I don't think that the above is correct.  I believe that the clock
>>>keeps running and counts off a 61st second.
>>I'm pretty sure Dave Mills is correct. For an introduction of leap seconds
>>and how they may be handled you migth have a look at
>>http://www.meinberg.de/english/info/leap-second.htm#overview
>>
>>Search for "normalize" at the end of that section.
> 
> 
> I see that. Key phrase:
> "2 consequent seconds have the same time stamp"
> 
> A post in the comp.protocols.time.ntp mailing list goes into
> further detail:
> 
> "every time a leap second happens, the fraction part
> of the  second, in the NTP timestamp keeps counting. That's 
> the fraction part only. It does not roll over to the next 
> second. Instead, the same second is repeated - thus we repeat 
> the same time, which means we go back in time. However, the 
> NTP timestamp sends out a leap second flag, which causes
> your computer to go to the 61st second."
> 
> http://mailgate.dada.net/comp/comp.protocols.time.ntp/msg08459.html
> 
> It looks like we were both wrong.  The NTP clock doesn't stop, as
> David L. Mills wrote, nor does it continue into a 61st second,
> which is what I thought it does.  Instead it jumps back a second 
> and repeats the 60th second with a leap second flag set.  
> 
> 




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