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FFCLOCK(2) System Calls Manual FFCLOCK(2) NAME ffclock_getcounter, ffclock_getestimate, ffclock_setestimate -- Re- trieve feed-forward counter, get and set feed-forward clock estimates LIBRARY Standard C Library (libc, -lc) SYNOPSIS #include <sys/timeffc.h> int ffclock_getcounter(ffcounter *ffcount); int ffclock_getestimate(struct ffclock_estimate *cest); int ffclock_setestimate(struct ffclock_estimate *cest); DESCRIPTION The ffclock is an alternative method to synchronise the system clock. The ffclock implements a feed-forward paradigm and decouples the time- stamping and timekeeping kernel functions. This ensures that past clock errors do not affect current timekeeping, an approach radically different from the feedback alternative implemented by the ntpd daemon when adjusting the system clock. The feed-forward approach has demon- strated better performance and higher robustness than a feedback ap- proach when synchronising over the network. In the feed-forward context, a timestamp is a cumulative value of the ticks of the timecounter, which can be converted into seconds by using the feed-forward clock estimates. The ffclock_getcounter() system call allows the calling process to re- trieve the current value of the feed-forward counter maintained by the kernel. The ffclock_getestimate() and ffclock_setestimate() system calls allow the caller to get and set the kernel's feed-forward clock parameter es- timates respectively. The ffclock_setestimate() system call should be invoked by a single instance of a feed-forward synchronisation daemon. The ffclock_getestimate() system call can be called by any process to retrieve the feed-forward clock estimates. The feed-forward approach does not require that the clock estimates be retrieved every time a timestamp is to be converted into seconds. The number of system calls can therefore be greatly reduced if the calling process retrieves the clock estimates from the clock synchronisation daemon instead. The ffclock_getestimate() must be used when the feed- forward synchronisation daemon is not running (see "USAGE" below). The clock parameter estimates structure pointed to by cest is defined in <sys/timeffc.h> as: struct ffclock_estimate { struct bintime update_time; /* Time of last estimates update. */ ffcounter update_ffcount; /* Counter value at last update. */ ffcounter leapsec_next; /* Counter value of next leap second. */ uint64_t period; /* Estimate of counter period. */ uint32_t errb_abs; /* Bound on absolute clock error [ns]. */ uint32_t errb_rate; /* Bound on counter rate error [ps/s]. */ uint32_t status; /* Clock status. */ int16_t leapsec_total; /* All leap seconds seen so far. */ int8_t leapsec; /* Next leap second (in {-1,0,1}). */ }; Only the super-user may set the feed-forward clock estimates. RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, the value 0 is returned; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error. ERRORS The following error codes may be set in errno: [EFAULT] The ffcount or cest pointer referenced invalid mem- ory. [EPERM] A user other than the super-user attempted to set the feed-forward clock parameter estimates. USAGE The feed-forward paradigm enables the definition of specialised clock functions. In its simplest form, ffclock_getcounter() can be used to establish strict order between events or to measure small time intervals very ac- curately with a minimum performance cost. Different methods exist to access absolute time (or "wall-clock time") tracked by the ffclock. The simplest method uses the ffclock sysctl in- terface kern.ffclock to make the system clock return the ffclock time. The clock_gettime(2) system call can then be used to retrieve the cur- rent time seen by the feed-forward clock. Note that this setting af- fects the entire system and that a feed-forward synchronisation daemon should be running. A less automated method consists of retrieving the feed-forward counter timestamp from the kernel and using the feed-forward clock parameter estimates to convert the timestamp into seconds. The feed-forward clock parameter estimates can be retrieved from the kernel or from the synchronisation daemon directly (preferred). This method allows con- verting timestamps using different clock models as needed by the appli- cation, while collecting meaningful upper bounds on current clock er- ror. SEE ALSO date(1), adjtime(2), clock_gettime(2), ctime(3) HISTORY Feed-forward clock support first appeared in FreeBSD 10.0. AUTHORS The feed-forward clock support was written by Julien Ridoux <jridoux@unimelb.edu.au> in collaboration with Darryl Veitch <dveitch@unimelb.edu.au> at the University of Melbourne under sponsor- ship from the FreeBSD Foundation. FreeBSD 13.2 November 21, 2011 FFCLOCK(2)
NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUES | ERRORS | USAGE | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS
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