[ntp:questions] Number of Stratum 1 & Stratum 2 Peers

Brian Inglis Brian.Inglis at SystematicSw.ab.ca
Sun Dec 14 00:52:46 UTC 2014


On 2014-12-12 03:25, Harlan Stenn wrote:

> It's pretty easy to download and install a leapsecond file, and ntpd
> will pay attention to that...

Not that easy - unless you are one of the lucky few to have encrypted
access to a NIST source, when it may be automatic.

You have to use a NIST server, as no other sources provide access to the NIST
leapseconds file, find one where FTP access is available and/or works reliably
from your system, schedule a download every six months, check the signature,
and if all goes well, replace your current file.

They also use their own weird approach to checking the file signature from
the last century, and source code to build to do so, rather than standard
approaches built into utilities available for and on modern systems.

You also have to specify in ntp.conf where the leapseconds file is stored,
whereas most other external configuration information can be passed on the
ntpd command line.

It would be interesting to know what percentage of the pool servers even use
a leapseconds file, and how many of those have a valid copy.
I am certain that very few clients use a leapseconds file.

OTOH the timezone/zoneinfo package uses its own leapseconds file (for "right"
time - now zoneinfo-leaps), and distributes that and the original, a script
that checks and converts it to their own format, and utilities that use it.

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis


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