kernel_optimize_test/kernel
john stultz bbe4d18ac2 NTP: correct inconsistent ntp interval/tick_length usage
I recently noticed on one of my boxes that when synched with an NTP
server, the drift value reported for the system was ~283ppm. While in
some cases, clock hardware can be that bad, it struck me as unusual as
the system was using the acpi_pm clocksource, which is one of the more
trustworthy and accurate clocksources on x86 hardware.

I brought up another system and let it sync to the same NTP server, and
I noticed a similar 280some ppm drift.

In looking at the code, I found that the acpi_pm's constant frequency
was being computed correctly at boot-up, however once the system was up,
even without the ntp daemon running, the clocksource's frequency was
being modified by the clocksource_adjust() function.

Digging deeper, I realized that in the code that keeps track of how much
the clocksource is skewing from the ntp desired time, we were using
different lengths to establish how long an time interval was.

The clocksource was being setup with the following interval:
	NTP_INTERVAL_LENGTH = NSEC_PER_SEC/NTP_INTERVAL_FREQ

While the ntp code was using the tick_length_base value:
	tick_length_base ~= (tick_usec * NSEC_PER_USEC * USER_HZ)
					/NTP_INTERVAL_FREQ

The subtle difference is:
	(tick_usec * NSEC_PER_USEC * USER_HZ) != NSEC_PER_SEC

This difference in calculation was causing the clocksource correction
code to apply a correction factor to the clocksource so the two
intervals were the same, however this results in the actual frequency of
the clocksource to be made incorrect. I believe this difference would
affect all clocksources, although to differing degrees depending on the
clocksource resolution.

The issue was introduced when my HZ free ntp patch landed in 2.6.21-rc1,
so my apologies for the mistake, and for not noticing it until now.

The following patch, corrects the clocksource's initialization code so
it uses the same interval length as the code in ntp.c. After applying
this patch, the drift value for the same system went from ~283ppm to
only 2.635ppm.

I believe this patch to be good, however it does affect all arches and
I've only tested on x86, so some caution is advised. I do think it would
be a likely candidate for a stable 2.6.24.x release.

Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated.

Signed-off-by: John Stultz <johnstul@us.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
2008-01-30 13:30:03 +01:00
..
irq genirq: revert lazy irq disable for simple irqs 2007-12-18 18:05:58 +01:00
power driver core: make /sys/power a kobject 2008-01-24 20:40:25 -08:00
time NTP: correct inconsistent ntp interval/tick_length usage 2008-01-30 13:30:03 +01:00
.gitignore
acct.c acct: real_parent ppid 2008-01-07 14:55:37 -08:00
audit_tree.c [PATCH] audit: watching subtrees 2007-10-21 02:37:45 -04:00
audit.c [PATCH] audit: watching subtrees 2007-10-21 02:37:45 -04:00
audit.h [PATCH] audit: watching subtrees 2007-10-21 02:37:45 -04:00
auditfilter.c [PATCH] audit: watching subtrees 2007-10-21 02:37:45 -04:00
auditsc.c auditsc: fix kernel-doc param warnings 2007-10-22 19:40:02 -07:00
capability.c
cgroup_debug.c
cgroup.c Improve cgroup printks 2007-11-14 18:45:37 -08:00
compat.c
configs.c
cpu.c cpu-hotplug: replace per-subsystem mutexes with get_online_cpus() 2008-01-25 21:08:02 +01:00
cpuset.c cpu-hotplug: replace lock_cpu_hotplug() with get_online_cpus() 2008-01-25 21:08:02 +01:00
delayacct.c
dma.c
exec_domain.c
exit.c wait_task_stopped(): pass correct exit_code to wait_noreap_copyout() 2007-11-29 09:24:55 -08:00
extable.c module: Don't report discarded init pages as kernel text. 2008-01-29 17:13:18 +11:00
fork.c kernel: add CLONE_IO to specifically request sharing of IO contexts 2008-01-28 10:50:36 +01:00
futex_compat.c [FUTEX] Fix address computation in compat code. 2007-11-09 16:13:08 -08:00
futex.c futex: Prevent stale futex owner when interrupted/timeout 2008-01-08 16:21:39 -08:00
hrtimer.c hrtimer: unlock hrtimer_wakeup 2008-01-25 21:08:32 +01:00
itimer.c
kallsyms.c module: make module_address_lookup safe 2008-01-29 17:13:23 +11:00
Kconfig.hz sched: high-res preemption tick 2008-01-25 21:08:29 +01:00
Kconfig.instrumentation Tiny clean-up of OPROFILE/KPROBES configuration 2007-12-06 09:41:12 -08:00
Kconfig.preempt sched: remove the !PREEMPT_BKL code 2008-01-25 21:08:33 +01:00
kexec.c vmcoreinfo: add the array length of "free_list" for filtering free pages 2008-01-08 16:10:36 -08:00
kfifo.c
kmod.c Fix unbalanced helper_lock in kernel/kmod.c 2008-01-17 15:38:59 -08:00
kprobes.c
ksysfs.c Kobject: convert remaining kobject_unregister() to kobject_put() 2008-01-24 20:40:40 -08:00
kthread.c sched: fix, always create kernel threads with normal priority 2008-01-25 21:08:33 +01:00
latency.c
latencytop.c sched: latencytop support 2008-01-25 21:08:34 +01:00
lockdep_internals.h
lockdep_proc.c
lockdep.c softlockup: automatically detect hung TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE tasks 2008-01-25 21:08:02 +01:00
Makefile sched: latencytop support 2008-01-25 21:08:34 +01:00
marker.c Linux Kernel Markers: fix marker mutex not taken upon module load 2007-11-14 18:45:40 -08:00
module.c Module: check to see if we have a built in module with the same name 2008-01-29 17:13:27 +11:00
mutex-debug.c
mutex-debug.h
mutex.c
mutex.h
notifier.c
ns_cgroup.c
nsproxy.c
panic.c debug: add end-of-oops marker 2007-12-20 15:01:17 +01:00
params.c module: fix the module name length in param_sysfs_builtin 2008-01-29 17:13:24 +11:00
pid.c pidns: Place under CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL 2007-11-14 18:45:43 -08:00
posix-cpu-timers.c sched: rt-watchdog: fix .rlim_max = RLIM_INFINITY 2008-01-25 21:08:32 +01:00
posix-timers.c
printk.c printk: revert ktime_get() timestamps 2008-01-27 08:03:54 +01:00
profile.c debug: clean up kernel/profile.c 2008-01-25 21:08:33 +01:00
ptrace.c ptrace: Call arch_ptrace_attach() when request=PTRACE_TRACEME 2008-01-25 08:31:39 +01:00
rcuclassic.c Preempt-RCU: implementation 2008-01-25 21:08:24 +01:00
rcupdate.c Preempt-RCU: fix rcu_barrier for preemptive environment. 2008-01-25 21:08:24 +01:00
rcupreempt_trace.c Preempt-RCU: implementation 2008-01-25 21:08:24 +01:00
rcupreempt.c Preempt-RCU: CPU Hotplug handling 2008-01-25 21:08:25 +01:00
rcutorture.c cpu-hotplug: replace lock_cpu_hotplug() with get_online_cpus() 2008-01-25 21:08:02 +01:00
relay.c
resource.c Add IORESOUCE_BUSY flag for System RAM 2007-11-14 18:45:39 -08:00
rtmutex_common.h
rtmutex-debug.c
rtmutex-debug.h
rtmutex-tester.c Driver core: change sysdev classes to use dynamic kobject names 2008-01-24 20:40:40 -08:00
rtmutex.c
rtmutex.h
rwsem.c sched: mark rwsem functions as __sched for wchan/profiling 2007-12-18 15:21:13 +01:00
sched_debug.c sched: keep total / count stats in addition to the max for 2008-01-25 21:08:35 +01:00
sched_fair.c sched: keep total / count stats in addition to the max for 2008-01-25 21:08:35 +01:00
sched_idletask.c sched: high-res preemption tick 2008-01-25 21:08:29 +01:00
sched_rt.c sched: fix goto retry in pick_next_task_rt() 2008-01-25 21:08:34 +01:00
sched_stats.h sched: clean up kernel/sched_stat.h 2007-11-28 15:52:56 +01:00
sched.c sched: print backtrace of running tasks too 2008-01-25 21:08:34 +01:00
seccomp.c
signal.c sigwait eats blocked default-ignore signals 2007-11-12 16:05:23 -08:00
softirq.c time: more timer related cleanups 2008-01-30 13:30:00 +01:00
softlockup.c softlockup: fix signedness 2008-01-25 21:08:34 +01:00
spinlock.c
srcu.c
stacktrace.c
stop_machine.c cpu-hotplug: replace lock_cpu_hotplug() with get_online_cpus() 2008-01-25 21:08:02 +01:00
sys_ni.c [COMPAT]: Fix build on COMPAT platforms when CONFIG_NET is disabled. 2007-10-30 21:29:56 -07:00
sys.c x86: ignore the sys_getcpu() tcache parameter 2007-11-17 16:27:00 +01:00
sysctl_check.c sysctl: Infrastructure for per namespace sysctls 2008-01-28 14:55:17 -08:00
sysctl.c [NET]: Remove the empty net_table 2008-01-28 14:56:29 -08:00
taskstats.c kernel/taskstats.c: fix bogus nlmsg_free() 2007-11-14 18:45:44 -08:00
time.c
timer.c time: timer cleanups 2008-01-30 13:30:00 +01:00
tsacct.c
uid16.c
user_namespace.c
user.c uids: merge multiple error paths in alloc_uid() into one 2008-01-25 21:08:26 +01:00
utsname_sysctl.c Isolate the UTS namespace's domainname and hostname back 2007-11-29 09:24:53 -08:00
utsname.c
wait.c
workqueue.c cpu-hotplug: replace per-subsystem mutexes with get_online_cpus() 2008-01-25 21:08:02 +01:00