Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 18:03:31 -0800 From: Cy Schubert - ITSD Open Systems Group <Cy.Schubert@uumail.gov.bc.ca> To: freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: NTP as a port vs. system ntpd (FreeBSD) Message-ID: <200112240203.fBO23jV09741@cwsys.cwsent.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 22 Dec 2001 02:19:36 %2B0100." <200112220119.fBM1JaN85361@dastardly.newsbastards.org>
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[Resending because it appears that this failed to make it to the
list this morning.]
In message <200112220119.fBM1JaN85361@dastardly.newsbastards.org>,
BOUWSMA Beery writes:
> [replies sent directly to me may timeout and bounce, since I'm not
> online as often as I should be, but I'll check the list archives]
>
> Hi
>
> I'm sending this to both the ports mailing list for FreeBSD,
> and to the NTP bugs address since I think a source change is needed.
> First, a lengthy background if it's helpful; the actual problem
> is outlined several paragraphs below after two blank lines.
>
>
> NTP exists in FreeBSD as part of the operating system (source to
> be found in /usr/src/usr.sbin/ntp/ plus /usr/src/contrib/ntp/
> for the real guts), plus it is available as a port, currently
> version 4.1.71, in /usr/ports/net/ntp/.
>
> The system version is built with source in src/contrib, mostly
> unchanged from the distribution, plus makefiles and goodies in
> src/usr.sbin that reach over to src/contrib to build it.
> Notably, there is a pre-made `config.h' file in src/usr.sbin
> that is used along with a few -Ddefines, so that what actually
> is built for the system is somewhat different than what one
> would build from identical virgin source.
>
> The port is similar, where virgin source is downloaded and a
> few minor patches are made, then it is built pretty much as
> normal, with `configure' done as part of the build process.
>
> The result of this is that the system-supplied ntpd, while
> somewhat old, has worked out of the box for me and my reference
> clock (an el cheapo brand DCF77 radio clock), but I've always
> had problems with the port. Most obviously, the port is not
> built with RAWDCF support (the system version has it), so I
> have had to manually build the port to enable this, but even
> then, I could never get it to work with my serial port RAWDCF
> clock, until today when inspiration struck after my hardware
> tweaking failed to result in success.
>
> As it turns out, the supplied hacked config.h file used by the
> system-supplied ntpd, found in /usr/src/usr.sbin/ntp/config.h,
> differs significantly from the generated config.h file when
> one runs `configure' normally. I haven't yet done a detailed
> comparison between the two to see how one could generate such
> a config.h file when building the port with the proper --enable-foo
> invocations that could be added to the port's Makefile, but
> today on a hunch I tried changing one of two things in the
> port (4.1.71) config.h file after running `configure', in a
> desperate attempt to get the DCF clock to actually *work*
> with any but the older system ntpd. (It worked out of the
> box when I built it on NetBSD enabling the DCF option, motivating
> me to see if I could figure out why FreeBSD had problems.)
>
>
> It turns out that FreeBSD, like either IRIX or Linux, needs
> one of the IGNPAR config.h options defined in order for the
> RAWDCF clock to work and not spit out errors every 2 seconds.
> I enabled the second (Linux) line and it worked, while the
> system version config.h enables the first (IRIX) line. This
> change probably needs to be made in the NTP distribution to the
> `configure' script, so that it will then work out-of-the-box
> when built on FreeBSD-4 and -5 (perhaps other versions too).
>
> As far as the port goes, it would be nice, though not really
> necessary, if it were to build with the same features enabled
> as the system version so it could be a plug-in replacement
> that would work with the same reference clocks, if not more,
> without the need for the user to manually specify these clocks
> and build things by hand. It looks like the port supports
> more clocks by default, but it's missing support for the DCF
> clocks.
As maintainer of the FreeBSD ntp port, I'll take a look at the
suggested improvements and discuss them with the folks at ntp.org.
Regards, Phone: (250)387-8437
Cy Schubert Fax: (250)387-5766
Team Leader, Sun/Alpha Team Email: Cy.Schubert@osg.gov.bc.ca
Open Systems Group, ITSD
Ministry of Management Services
Province of BC
FreeBSD UNIX: cy@FreeBSD.org
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