[pkg-ntp-maintainers] Bug#498992: Bug#498992: kernel time sync status change and log levels

[Tim Small]

Kurt Roeckx wrote:
> On none of the server I run I see the "status change" messages,
> except for one about 5 minutes after booting.  At any other time
> a change of the status for me is actually an indication that
> something is wrong.  I expect it to always be in PLL mode (0001).
>
> I guess it comes down to how much you care about your clock,
> and expect that people using the default pool servers see
> those errors more.  Looking at some of those pools servers,
> their clocks are regarly off in the range of 100 ms, and half
> an hour later -100 ms.  And I expect ntp to have a problem
> with such servers.

. I get these messages in the default Debian configuration (i.e. , even 
on a good quality low jitter/low-latency network connection), this may 
be due to pool servers, as you say.

. Upstream consider these messages to be "normal, but significant" - 
they do not indicate a fault.

. Currently the logcheck rules are set to ignore "kernel time sync 
disabled messages", but not these mode-change messages!

. I would imagine that even with perfect ntp servers, users with jittery 
or congested network connections will frequently see these messages, and 
they should be considered normal behaviour.

. If the majority of users should care about these messages, then they 
should instead be changed to something a lot more clear (i.e. the user 
doesn't need to have knowledge of PLLs and refer to the ntp source to 
understand what they might mean - let alone whether the condition may 
indicate a problem).

. I am not asking that these messages should not be logged, only that 
they should not be emailed to me by default....

Thanks,

Tim.