RE: EPICS time

["Mark Rivers" <rivers@cars.uchicago.edu>]

Folks,

Back on Dec. 22 I reported:
> > Problem: The environment variable EPICS_TS_NTP_INET is 
> supposed to allow me to specify the IP address of an NTP 
> server.  My boot host (Windows) is not an NTP server, so I 
> have used this environment variable to specify a valid NTP 
> time server.  This works fine under 3.13.7.  However, when I 
> boot the same system from 3.14.4 it does not work, I get an 
> "iocClockSyncWithNTPServer: sntpcTimeGet S_sntpcLib_TIMEOUT 
> error", and the "date" command says it's 1989.
> >  

Marty Kraimer replied on Jan. 5
> I do not understand why this worked under 3.13 but not under 3.14.
> How are you setting EPICS_TS_NTP_INET?

I did some more tests today, on both 3.13.7 and 3.14.4.  I booted with 3 configurations:
1) ntpd running on boot host
2) ntpd not running on boot host and EPICS_TS_NTP_INET not defined
3) ntpd not running on boot host and EPICS_TS_NTP_INET defined as follows:
putenv "EPICS_TS_NTP_INET=164.54.160.12"
where 164.54.160.12 is another machine that is running ntpd.

I found that things work as expected on both 3.13.7 and 3.14.4.  The date is correct in cases 1) and 3), and not correct in case 2).  

My previous tests, when I reported the problem, were done at Brookhaven on a system I cannot access remotely, so I can't reproduce the problem.  The only thing I can think of is that the ntp server there is on another subnet and the IOC was not able to access it (I might have had the default route incorrect).

> If TIMEZONE is not defined on a vxWorks system epics looks 
> for EPICS_TIMEZONE, which is defined in  <base>/configure/CONFIG_SITE_ENV/CONFIG_SITE_ENV
> ...

EPICS_TIMEZONE is not discussed in the Application Developer's Guide.  Should it be?

Mark