[ntp:questions] API for step time server notification

unruh unruh at wormhole.physics.ubc.ca
Mon Jul 26 16:17:29 UTC 2010


On 2010-07-26, Thierry MARTIN <thierry-martin at ifrance.com> wrote:
> On 26 juil, 16:39, unruh <un... at wormhole.physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
>> On 2010-07-26, Thierry MARTIN <thierry-mar... at ifrance.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Hello,
>>
>> > Is there any API that can be used in a program to be "notified" if a
>> > "step time server" event occurs?
>> > As far as I could see, it is "only" logged.
>>
>> You could have something read the logs and notify your program. Or if
>> you are on Linux/BSD you could run chrony, which does not step.
>> Mind you if ntpd is stepping after having been running for a few hours,
>> something is seriously wrong, and needs fixing.
>>
>>
>>
>> > Thanks in advance for your answers.
>> > / Thierry
>
> Unfortunately, watching the logs does not fit my need.
> I will try and explain what are my constraints.
>
> My program is doing network packet acquisition on several links and
> needs to sort them - based on the timestamps.
> Also, many network measurements are very badly affected by time
> stepping forward or backward.
>
> This explains why I'd like to be notified of time steps. (It is easy
> when time is going backward, but not in the other case).
>
> I think ntpd ajusts time by step if the system looses connection to
> ntp sources for a while (I set up the step threshold to 1s on the ntp
> server).

No. ntpd steps if the time is out xby more than 125ms. This is a failure
of ntpd, but it is NOT something that should happen. 
Your clocks should not step even if they loose connectivity for a fair
while if their frequency has been disciplined-- and if  your network
looses connectivity, then your network monitoring is screwed anyway. 

You might also want to let the clock freewheel (ie do not use ntp to
discipline it) but use ntp to find out how far out your clocks actually
are. Then again you can use that info to correct the times of the
timestamps after the fact. 

But this stepping is simply a feature of ntpd. If you do not like it,
use chrony instead (unless you are on windows). 
By looking at the logs, you can at least post facto resort your network
timestamps
>
> Anyway, thanks for your help.
>




More information about the questions mailing list