conf: add clockprecision directive

Make the precision of the system clock configurable. This can be useful
on servers using hardware timestamping to reduce the amount of noise
added to the NTP timestamps and improve stability of NTP measurements.

diff --git a/conf.c b/conf.c
index 94c4dbb01a148cd4c77e96afe13ef8bf380415d4..9dede19be0391e0e5471dc70e1b81a368f22eee3 100644 (file)
--- a/conf.c
+++ b/conf.c
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ static double correction_time_ratio = 3.0;
 static double max_clock_error = 1.0; /* in ppm */
 static double max_drift = 500000.0; /* in ppm */
 static double max_slew_rate = 1e6 / 12.0; /* in ppm */
+static double clock_precision = 0.0; /* in seconds */
 
 static SRC_AuthSelectMode authselect_mode = SRC_AUTHSELECT_MIX;
 static double max_distance = 3.0;
@@ -544,6 +545,8 @@ CNF_ParseLine(const char *filename, int number, char *line)
     parse_broadcast(p);
   } else if (!strcasecmp(command, "clientloglimit")) {
     parse_clientloglimit(p);
+  } else if (!strcasecmp(command, "clockprecision")) {
+    parse_double(p, &clock_precision);
   } else if (!strcasecmp(command, "cmdallow")) {
     parse_allow_deny(p, cmd_restrictions, 1);
   } else if (!strcasecmp(command, "cmddeny")) {
@@ -2048,6 +2051,14 @@ CNF_GetMaxSlewRate(void)
 
 /* ================================================== */
 
+double
+CNF_GetClockPrecision(void)
+{
+  return clock_precision;
+}
+
+/* ================================================== */
+
 double
 CNF_GetMaxDistance(void)
 {

diff --git a/conf.h b/conf.h
index b1f6e6413b700c36e0c98aa8993891ba17fb7554..1d3f36b662b05f8475d3b9ccd720145ade754292 100644 (file)
--- a/conf.h
+++ b/conf.h
@@ -95,6 +95,7 @@ extern double CNF_GetMaxClockError(void);
 extern double CNF_GetMaxDrift(void);
 extern double CNF_GetCorrectionTimeRatio(void);
 extern double CNF_GetMaxSlewRate(void);
+extern double CNF_GetClockPrecision(void);
 
 extern SRC_AuthSelectMode CNF_GetAuthSelectMode(void);
 extern double CNF_GetMaxDistance(void);

diff --git a/doc/chrony.conf.adoc b/doc/chrony.conf.adoc
index 42e3997d92e0783a3fea0ce754931ce1cdfc56fa..5f029e4c5ac038c8b2a2bb6b26f6593c8ccf515b 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/chrony.conf.adoc
+++ b/doc/chrony.conf.adoc
@@ -908,6 +908,27 @@ distances are in milliseconds.
 
 === System clock
 
+[[clockprecision]]*clockprecision* _precision_::
+The *clockprecision* directive specifies the precision of the system clock (in
+seconds). It is used by *chronyd* to estimate the minimum noise in NTP
+measurements and randomise low-order bits of timestamps in NTP responses. By
+default, the precision is measured on start as the minimum time to read the
+clock.
++
+The measured value works well in most cases. However, it generally
+overestimates the precision and it can be sensitive to the CPU speed, which can
+change over time to save power. In some cases with a high-precision clocksource
+(e.g. the Time Stamp Counter of the CPU) and hardware timestamping, setting the
+precision on the server to a smaller value can improve stability of clients'
+NTP measurements. The server's precision is reported on clients by the
+<<chronyc.adoc#ntpdata,*ntpdata*>> command.
++
+An example setting the precision to 8 nanoseconds is:
++
+----
+clockprecision 8e-9
+----
+
 [[corrtimeratio]]*corrtimeratio* _ratio_::
 When *chronyd* is slewing the system clock to correct an offset, the rate at
 which it is slewing adds to the frequency error of the clock. On all supported

diff --git a/local.c b/local.c
index 15c37b1fc6b39584e43293bae5323897a0883298..c0916cfc48a7246b5347e973dd6cbe8c806e7ef8 100644 (file)
--- a/local.c
+++ b/local.c
@@ -108,8 +108,8 @@ static double max_clock_error;
 
 #define NSEC_PER_SEC 1000000000
 
-static void
-calculate_sys_precision(void)
+static double
+measure_clock_precision(void)
 {
   struct timespec ts, old_ts;
   int iters, diff, best;
@@ -135,18 +135,7 @@ calculate_sys_precision(void)
 
   assert(best > 0);
 
-  precision_quantum = 1.0e-9 * best;
-
-  /* Get rounded log2 value of the measured precision */
-  precision_log = 0;
-  while (best < 707106781) {
-    precision_log--;
-    best *= 2;
-  }
-
-  assert(precision_log >= -30);
-
-  DEBUG_LOG("Clock precision %.9f (%d)", precision_quantum, precision_log);
+  return 1.0e-9 * best;
 }
 
 /* ================================================== */
@@ -170,7 +159,16 @@ LCL_Initialise(void)
   current_freq_ppm = 0.0;
   temp_comp_ppm = 0.0;
 
-  calculate_sys_precision();
+  precision_quantum = CNF_GetClockPrecision();
+  if (precision_quantum <= 0.0)
+    precision_quantum = measure_clock_precision();
+
+  precision_quantum = CLAMP(1.0e-9, precision_quantum, 1.0);
+  precision_log = round(log(precision_quantum) / log(2.0));
+  /* NTP code doesn't support smaller log than -30 */
+  assert(precision_log >= -30);
+
+  DEBUG_LOG("Clock precision %.9f (%d)", precision_quantum, precision_log);
 
   /* This is the maximum allowed frequency offset in ppm, the time must
      never stop or run backwards */