Subject: [Ntp] Antw: [EXT] Re: Timescales, leapseconds and smearing

From: "Ulrich Windl" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 2020 11:05:30 +0100

>>> Hal Murray <[email-masked]> schrieb am 08.12.2020 um 00:48 in
Nachricht <[email-masked]>:
>>  We have various timescales people might care about:
>> ‑ NTP
> 
> Current on‑the‑wire NTP format is only 32 bits of seconds since start of 
> epoch.  Should we extend that to 64 bits so we never have to worry about 
> epochs?

Nice in theory, but in practice it should be clear what the epoch is, maybe
guessing from the compilation time.
Amazingly I remember reading an article dated 1985 (or so) about problems
arising when the (31/32 bit) UNIX epoch overflows.
Y2K wasn't mentioned then, but as we all know, that was the harder problem. I
guess nobody is expecting a year 19xx in the near future and before the next
overflow I guess everything is specified as 64 bits anyway (if we still
exist).

Regards,
Ulrich