Hello, I have a question about the Status field in NTP Control Message Headers. On p.55 of rfc1305 it says:
"Status: This is a 16-bit code indicating the current status of the system, peer or clock, with values coded as described in following sections." The rfc then lists four different interpretations of that field; System Status Word, Peer Status Word, Clock Status Word and Error Status Word. I C parlance the field is a union. What is not clear to me is how you can know what field type you have in a particular control message. p.56 says "The system status word appears in the status field of the response to a read status or read variables command with a zero association identifier." So the Status field is a System Status Word if the association identifier equals 0 AND the operation is either Read Status or Read Variables. p.57 says "A peer status word is returned in the status field of a response to a read status, read variables or write variables command and appears also in the list of association identifiers and status words returned by a read status command with a zero association identifier." That text is somewhat confusing. The Status Field is a Peer Status Word if the association identifier is not 0 AND the operation is either Read Status, Read Variables or Write Variables? p.58 says "As in the read status command, the association identifier is used to identify which one, zero for the system clock and nonzero for a peer clock. ... A system or peer clock status word appears in the status field of the response to a read clock variables or write clock variables command." I have no idea what that means or in which circumstances a Clock Status Word is returned in the Status field. The description of the Error Status Word is much more straightforward. As long as the E (error bit) and R (response bit) are set, then the Status is an Error Status Word. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this. -- mvh Björn _______________________________________________ questions mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ntp.org/mailman/listinfo/questions
