Release Notes

The following changes are in the version 3.5a distribution relative to the previous 3.4y version.

  • The documentation has been completely reworked in HTML format suitable for web browsing.

  • The automatic build procedure has been improved to

    support the line disciplines, streams modules and precision time kernel modifications. These are controlled by the presence of certain system-dependent header files in the /usr/include/sys directory.

    include by default all reference clock drivers known to work with each combination of hardware and operating system. (The particular defaults are specified in the ../machines files for each machine.)

    activate precision time kernel modifications by default if detected by the build procedure. (Previous versions required an undocumented addition to the ntp.drift file in order to activate these modifications.)

  • Three TrueTime reference clock drivers, which did slightly different things with each model, have been replaced with one driver (type 5) that works with all models.

  • There is a new pps option to the xntpdc program and configuration file enable/disable command, which enables or disables the PPS precision time control signal. This is primarily intended for situations where external equipment has malfunctioned or the signal has become excessively noisy.

  • The precision configuration file command and xntpdc command have been removed; the precision variable quantity is now determined automatically and cannot be changed.

  • The authenticate and monitor commands in xntpdc have been removed; the functions provided by these commands are now provided by the enable and disable commands.

  • Fixed minor problems peculiar to different machines and system environments.

    • This version 3.5a has been compiled and run on at least the following machines, operating systems and compilers. In all known cases, if the gcc compiler eats it with some success, the cc compiler also enjoys the meal. The converse is not always true. 

    Machine   OS             Comp Notes
Sun4      SunOS 4.1.1    gcc  all REFCLOCK drivers (dm 96/02/07)
Sun4      SunOS 4.1.3    gcc  all REFCLOCK drivers (dm 96/02/07)
Sun4      SunOS 5.3      gcc  all REFCLOCK drivers (dm 96/02/07)
Sun4      SunOS 5.4      gcc  all REFCLOCK drivers (dm 96/02/07)
ALPHA     OSF/1 3.2      gcc  all REFCLOCK drivers (dm 96/02/07)
MIPS      Ultrix 4.4     gcc  all REFCLOCK drivers (dm 96/02/07)
HP735     HPUX 9.0       cc   all REFCLOCK drivers (dm 96/02/07)

    Previous versions have been compiled and run on at least the following machines, operating systems and compilers. In all known cases, if the gcc compiler eats it with some success, the cc compiler also enjoys the meal. The converse is not always true. 

    Machine   OS             Comp Notes
VAX-11/785 4.3 tahoe     cc   none
Sun3      SunOS 4.1.1    gcc  no REFCLOCK (pb 93/10/25)
Sun4      SunOS 4.1.1    gcc  all REFCLOCK drivers (dm 93/10/25)
Sun4      SunOS 4.1.3    gcc  all REFLCOCK drivers
Sun4      SunOS 5.1      gcc  no REFCLOCK (pb 93/10/25)
Sun4      SunOS 5.2      gcc  no REFCLOCK (dm 93/11/20)
Sun4      SunOS 5.2      gcc  PARSE REFCLOCK (kd 93/11/10)
Sun4      SunOS 5.3      gcc  all REFCLOCK drivers (dm 95/07/15)
HP700     HPUX 9.0       cc   no REFCLOCK
hp7xx     HPUX 9.01      cc   local + PARSE (kd 93/10/26)
hp7xx     HPUX 9.03      cc   all REFCLOCK drivers (dm 95/07/15)
HP3xx     HPUX 9.01      cc   no REFCLOCK (pb 93/10/25)
HP3xx     HPUX 8.0       cc   no REFCLOCK (pb 93/10/25)
MIPS      Ultrix 4.3a    gcc  all REFCLOCK drivers (dm 93/11/20)
MIPS      Ultrix 3a      gcc  green               (pb 93/10/26)
ALPHA     OSF/1 1.2a     gcc  no REFCLOCK         (dm 93/11/20)
ALPHA     OSF/1 1.3      gcc  no REFCLOCK         (pb 93/10/25)
ALPHA     OSF/1 1.3      gcc  green               (pb 93/10/26)
ALPHA     OSF/1 2.0      gcc  no REFCLOCK         (dm 94/10/10)
ALPHA     OSF/1 3.0      gcc  no REFCLOCK         (dm 95/07/15)
Convex    Convex OS 10.1 ?    ?
SGI       IRIX 4.0.5F    gcc  no REFCLOCK         (pb 93/11/10)
AIX       3.2            ?    ?
A/UX      2.0.1, 3.x.x   gcc  LOCAL_CLOCK    (jmj (94/01/26 see hints)
RS6000    AIX 3.2        gcc  no REFCLOCK
MX500     Sinix-m V5.40  cc   PARSE REFCLOCK
S2000     Sequent PTX 1.4 cc  LOCAL_CLOCK         (kd 93/11/10)
S2000     Sequent PTX 1.4 gcc LOCAL_CLOCK         (kd 93/11/10)
PC        FreeBSD        gcc  LOCAL_CLOCK         see "build problems"
PC        NetBSD?        gcc  possibly see "build problems"
PC        BSD/386 1.0    gcc  possibly see "build problems"
PC        Linux (pl14)   gcc  LOCAL_CLOCK         (dw 93/10/30)
PC        Dell SVR4 v2.2 gcc  ?                   (tl 93/12/30)
PC        Unixware1/SVR4 cc   no tickadj, ?       (ras 93/04/11)
NCR3445   NCR SVR4       cc   LOCAL_CLOCK         (tm 93/11/29)
PC        WindowsNT 3.5  VisualC++2.0 no REFCLOCK (vb 95/04/11)

vb: Viraj Bais 
pb: Piete Brooks
kd: Frank Kardel
dw: Torsten Duwe (duwe@informatik.uni-erlangen.de)
dm: David Mills (mills@udel.edu)
tl: Tony Lill 
tm: Tom Moore 
jmj: Jim Jagielski 
ras: Ray Schnitzler
    David L. Mills (mills@udel.edu)