[ntp:questions] Thoughts on huff and puff

Maarten Wiltink maarten at kittensandcats.net
Tue Oct 21 14:59:03 UTC 2008


"Unruh" <unruh-spam at physics.ubc.ca> wrote in message
news:PmgIk.930$%%2.306 at edtnps82...
> "David L. Mills" <mills at udel.edu> writes:
[...]
>> What you report seems to be common practice in packaged systems -
>> include the local clock driver - is unfortunate. I consider that a bad
>> practice, but then my engineering principles might not coincide with
>> their on-ground reality.
>
> I agree that it is both unfortunate and incomprehensible.

I don't.

In a client, it doesn't _hurt_ as long as nobody asks the client
for the time.

In a server, it can keep the flock together even while the server
drifts.

Some people may prefer to be explicitly unsynchronised, but for
myself I'm happy to accept that stratum 11 means we don't really
know what time it is - but wherever we go, we go there together.

The fatal flaw, of course, is that with a single package, client
and server will both revert to their _own_ local clock. That
defeats the purpose.

Groetjes,
Maarten Wiltink





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