[ntp:questions] ntpd 4.2.6 and outdated leap second file

Martin Burnicki martin.burnicki at meinberg.de
Thu Feb 26 14:26:01 UTC 2015


Hi folks,

I've been running some leap seconds tests with ntpd and found a problem 
that ntpd 4.2.6* will *never* handle a current leap second if ntpd has 
been configured to use a leap second file, and the leap second file is 
*outdated*.

It will not even handle the leap second if it receives a valid leap 
second warning from an upstream NTP server, or from a refclock.

This is *not* a bug but the intended behavior. See NTP bug 861, comment 
46 and 47, as well as the following discussion:
http://bugs.ntp.org/show_bug.cgi?id=861#c46

So if you are running ntpd 4.2.6 with a leap second file configured then 
please make sure to use the current version of the leap second file. 
Otherwise you will encounter a problem when the leap second occurs.

BTW, in 4.2.8 this has fortunately been reworked, so an expired leap 
second file is ignored as it ought to be, and leap second announcements 
from other sources are then accepted.

Martin
-- 
Martin Burnicki

Meinberg Funkuhren
Bad Pyrmont
Germany



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