On Tue, Nov 15, 2005 at 01:34:27PM +1100, the unit calling itself Shane J
Pearson wrote:
> J,
>
> On 15/11/2005, at 9:42 AM, J Moore wrote:
>
> >Prior discussions notwithstanding, the fact is that the log
> >messages are
> >misleading. I *understand* now... if the log messages were written
> >differently, I never would've had to ask.
>
> Reasonable person scenario:
>
> o Notice odd ntpd log entries.
> o #man ntpd
> o Notice SECOND paragraph says:
>
> "ntpd uses the adjtime(2) system call to correct the local system
> time without causing time jumps. Adjustments larger than 128ms
> are logged using syslog(3). The threshold value is chosen to
> avoid having local clock drift thrash the log files."
>
> o Crisis averted.
Come on, Shane - did you ever take a friggin' course in English? Are you
telling me that the passage above makes the following one-liner clear:
'adjusting local clock by XXs'
The word 'by' is a preposition with a specific meaning in the context of
its use... it means "in the amount of"... but that's not what it means
here, is it? No, it does not. Therefore, the log entry is *inaccurate*.
So there is no crisis to be averted here, Shane. A developer for whom
English is probably a second language mis-used the language, and created
confusion. OK, that's cool... but what escapes me is this comment:
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openbsd-misc&m=110202770603752&w=2
> ---
> so I'll change
> log_info("adjusting local clock by %fs", d);
> into
> log_info("now kindly asking the kernel to adjust the clock "
> "by %f seconds but it will not do so at once so maybe "
> "it takes a while", d);"
> ---
I gather that he rejected the consensus that his choice of words was
confusing?
> >I don't know who Henning is, and I don't know what he voted "no"
> >to, but
> >if he voted against a clear log message, then he voted "yes" to
> >confusion.
>
> Come on. You've been haunting these lists for long enough to know who
> Henning is. Cut the theatrics.
No theatrics intended - since the OP, I've been informed that Henning
wrote some or all of the code in ntpd. That's great - I love the code, I
think his English needs some work.
Jay
