Where is timed in the ISC tcp/ip package?

[Andrew Tannenbaum]

In article <LARRY.90Mar12164645 at focsys.uucp> larry at focsys.uucp (Larry Williamson) writes:
> Our BSD machines have timed. Our Mips machines have timed.
> Why not our 386/ix machines?

Timed was designed to run under BSD, and it relies on the "Berkeley
UNIX Time Synchronization Protocol (TSP)"  (See your 4.3BSD Manual
SMM:22) and the BSD adjtime(2) system call.  Since neither TSP nor
adjtime(2) are supported by AT&T UNIX or ISC UNIX Sytem V release 3 for
the 386 (formerly known as 386/ix), timed is not supported on ISC UNIX 5.3.

If you have a machine with timed, it is a straightforward matter to run
a script over the net from one of your well-synchronized machines that
adjusts the clocks on your Sys V machines using settime(2).  This is a
hack solution, but it may help.  Note that there are dangers in setting
a system's clock backwards without adjtime (mostly because it can screw
up "make" or other such time-dependent software) so you can sync it at
night, but be careful about people who run system builds overnight, and
so on.

It's clear (to me) that in these days of networked systems (especially
file systems), it becomes increasingly important to sync the clocks on
a local net.  Most manufacturers respond to customer demand - if you
need it, let us know.  (I don't work in the ISC UNIX product
organization, so it's not me who needs convincing.)

Btw, timed has been superceded by NTP which has in turn been superceded
by XNTP.  For info on these, check out louie.udel.edu [128.175.1.3]
~ftp/pub/ntp and ~ftp/pub/ntp/xntp.  It looks like XNTP is the
clock-watcher's dream, but I haven't played with it yet.

	Andrew Tannenbaum   Interactive   Cambridge, MA   +1 617 661 7474