On 1/5/2021 6:42 AM, Richard Cochran wrote:
> * Changed in v2:
> - Use client/server terminology in the phc2sys man page.
> - Add missing source/sink conversions in the phc2sys man page.
>
>
> There is an industry wide effort underway to replace historically and
> culturally loaded terms like master/slave with neutral alternatives.
> The IEEE 1588 committee will most likely amend the standard, but so
> far no consensus on the new terminology has been reached.
>
> Many of the proposed alternative terms are either awful sounding or
> just plain silly. This project will take the lead by implementing
> proper English language terminology that is, at the same time, both
> culturally neutral and technically more accurate.
>
> The original designation of the PTP port roles made little sense in
> the first place. Under the institution of slavery, the role of a
> slave is to perform work for the master. In a PTP network it is the
> "master" port that serves the slaves, the opposite of what the terms
> suggest. Thus, in the context of the PTP port roles, we have chosen
> to replace master/slave with client/server.
>
> Besides the PTP port roles, there is the area of local clock
> synchronization as performed by the phc2sys and the ts2phc programs.
> In the past we have applied the master/slave terminology in a
> confusing manner. The phc2sys program labeled a single port both
> master and slave at the same time, but in different contexts. In
> contrast, the new terminology will be "time source" and "time sink",
> inspired by signal nomenclature from the field of electrical
> engineering.
I really like this new terminology, I think that
>
> The approach to roll out these changes will be as follows.
>
> - Start today with the human readable program help and the man pages.
>
> - Provide alternative configuration options for slaveOnly and
> masterOnly, marking the existing options as deprecated.
>
> - Later on change the identifiers inside the programs.
>
> - None of the re-naming shall impact any existing user configuration
> scripts. This entails leaving some of the occurrences of the word
> "master" in place. We will take care not to cause issues for the
> myriad deployments of this software world wide.
>
>
The patch series here is technically correct, and I like this approach
you outlined.
Given that the standard hasn't adopted new terminology, many folks may
argue that we shouldn't do anything. However, I agree with you that we
can help shape the direction by giving such a proposal weight.
I like that you took the time to think of terminology that more
accurately describes the relationships, and understand the differences
between source/sink and client/server. I am personally very happy with
the suggested terminology because it helps clarify the difference
between the clock synchronization with the PTP algorithm server/client
relationship. I've always had some trouble explaining how a PTP slave
(client) is also a "master" (source) to synchronize the system clock as
a "slave" (sink).
By distinguishing these things it should be easier to explain the
relevant pieces of the entire setup.
Thanks for continuing to push this forward!
> Patch #1 updates the phc2sys to reflect recent, yet unrelated changes.
> Patches 2-5 update the man pages, and patches 6-8 update the program
> usage messages.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Richard
>
> Richard Cochran (8):
> phc2sys: Update man page to reflect the new restriction on the PPS
> mode.
> phc2sys: Convert man page to source/sink terminology.
> phc2sys: Convert man page to client/server terminology.
> ptp4l: Convert man page to client/server terminology.
> ts2phc: Convert man page to source/sink terminology.
> phc2sys: Convert usage messages to time source/sink terminology.
> ptp4l: Convert usage messages to client/server terminology.
> ts2phc: Convert usage message to time source/sink terminology.
>
> phc2sys.8 | 58 +++++++++++++++++-----------------------
> phc2sys.c | 12 ++++-----
> ptp4l.8 | 80 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------------------------
> ptp4l.c | 2 +-
> ts2phc.8 | 20 +++++++-------
> ts2phc.c | 2 +-
> 6 files changed, 84 insertions(+), 90 deletions(-)
>
_______________________________________________
Linuxptp-devel mailing list
Linuxptp-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxptp-devel
