Your message dated Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:19:59 -0600
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Re: Bug#538742: [hwclock] Please disable hwclock.sh unless
using adjtime; document rationale
has caused the Debian Bug report #538742,
regarding [hwclock] Please disable hwclock.sh unless using adjtime; document
rationale
to be marked as done.
This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
message is talking about, this may indicate a serious mail system
misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact [email protected]
immediately.)
--
538742: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=538742
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact [email protected] with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: util-linux
Version: 2.15.1~rc1-1
Severity: normal
util-linux provides two init scripts, hwclockfirst and hwclock, both of
which run hwclock at boot time. I looked back through the util-linux
changelog, and as far as I can tell, hwclockfirst came about in version
2.11l-1 because hwclock ran too late. hwclockfirst later went away
again in 2.12r-12, and hwclock moved earlier instead in subsequent
versions. However, util-linux 2.13-7 re-introduced hwclockfirst,
because hwclock wants to both support /etc/adjtime and run before /
becomes read-write.
Based on all the information I can find on adjtime, it seems highly
dubious, and ntp seems like a far better way to handle clock drift.
adjtime does not even get used unless the user manually uncomments it.
Furthermore, each invocation of hwclock slows down the boot process
quite significantly.
Thus, I propose that hwclock.sh should immediately exit unless using
adjtime. This could occur by adding the following line:
[ "$FIRST" != yes ] && exit 0 # Comment this out if using --adjust
That seems like the least invasive way to fix this. A better solution
would involve removing the duplicate script entirely, and instructing
anyone using adjtime to set one up. You could even move it to a
"hwclock-adjust" package, for instance.
In any case, the presence of two separate hwclock scripts could really
use some explanatory documentation in
/usr/share/doc/util-linux/README.Debian.hwclock . However, the
documentation seems significantly lower priority than eliminating the
duplicate work done on every boot.
(On a related note, Linux 2.6.17 and newer (used since Debian etch)
support copying the hardware clock to the system clock on bootup
themselves, and they do a better job of it. Thus, all use of hwclock on
bootup could go away on 2.6.17 and newer kernels, unless using non-UTC
in the RTC. I'll file that as a separate bug.)
- Josh Triplett
-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.30-1-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Versions of packages util-linux depends on:
ii libc6 2.9-21 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii libncurses5 5.7+20090613-1 shared libraries for terminal hand
ii libselinux1 2.0.82-1 SELinux shared libraries
ii libslang2 2.1.4-3 The S-Lang programming library - r
ii libuuid1 1.41.8-2 Universally Unique ID library
ii lsb-base 3.2-23 Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip
ii tzdata 2009k-1 time zone and daylight-saving time
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-14 compression library - runtime
util-linux recommends no packages.
Versions of packages util-linux suggests:
ii dosfstools 3.0.4-1 utilities for making and checking
ii kbd 1.15-2 Linux console font and keytable ut
pn util-linux-locales <none> (no description available)
-- no debconf information
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Version: 2.16-2.1
--
As of 2.16-2, udev is the answer to making hwclock*.sh be a no-op.
lamont
--- End Message ---
