lockclock

[Hal Murray]

Eric said:
> Heh.  I've been pretty ruthless about dropping every line of code I could.
> Did it occur to you to wonder why I hadn't already nuked this?

> It's because the only way this code makes any sense to me is if at one point
> NIST was running NTP Classic on the master fountain clock. For all we know
> they might still be doing that.

I expect the lockclock code is a partnership between Dave Mills and Judah 
Levine at NIST.

> This is an NTPsec use case we *absolutely* want to encourage.  What better
> reference user could we have?

> So, yes, we're going to support that (unless Mark knows some compelling
> reason we shouldn't, which I doubt). If NIST comes asking us for help we want
> to be able to say "Yes, *sir*.  At your service, *sir*." 

I'd considered it, but not thought things through.  I think the best way we 
can get a foot in at high volume sites like NIST is through a high performance 
server.  That's probably why I sent that message at about the same time.

Suppose we split the client/server parts of ntpd.  We need some way to get 
info from the client to the server.  I was assuming that pathway could handle 
the lockclock case too.

-----------

Subject: Re: ntpd: program structure

esr at thyrsus.com said:
> The biggest problem with any attempt to break up ntpd into multiple separate
> programs is that it would almost necessarily force changes in the way NTP
> configuration works that would be (a) user-visible, and (b) not backward
> compatible.  The only ways around having such a configuration break I was
> able to think up were so complicated and ugly that they seemed like
> non-starters in themselves. 

I've been assuming that sites using lockclock are big/important and willing to 
put in a little work to get significant benefits.  Yes, it's easier if the old 
ntp.conf works.

If we are serious about supporting lockclock, we have to figure out a way to 
test it.  We can probably make something that supports GPSDOs with PPS.

Another potential target is sites with PTP.





-- 
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