Re: [Ntp] CLOCK_TAI (was NTPv5: big picture)

[Kurt Roeckx <[e-mail]>]

On Wed, Jan 06, 2021 at 11:24:21AM +0100, Martin Burnicki wrote:
> > 
> > Indeed. I am confident that the client can be very simple and provide
> > the right time, even with leap seconds occurring.
> 
> Of course. But the limitation is in the server. Right now, it is
> sufficient to have a time source like DCF77. If you enforce using of
> TAI, that's not sufficient anymore.

If you combine it with the leap second info, you can get TAI and
UTC from DCF77.

> AFAIK, there's no current OS that doesn't support UTC.

I would argue that no OS really supports UTC. They support
something like UNIX time, which is not the same as UTC since it
can't represent the leap second.

If the OS has TAI support, you can calculate UTC from it if you have
leap second information. But the OS or libraries don't support UTC,
it's currently up to the application to make UTC from TAI.


Kurt