Re: [gpsd-dev] [PATCH 1/2] Improve some details in time service documentation.

[Miroslav Lichvar]

On Fri, Nov 29, 2013 at 11:01:29AM -0800, Gary E. Miller wrote:
> Im not on board with these changes.  Remember the howto is
> for the most basic configuration, the easiest one to guarantee
> success to the user.

I think that's exactly what the patch is improving.

> On Fri, 29 Nov 2013 16:01:44 +0100
> Miroslav Lichvar <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > - allow NTP access in example chronyd configuration
> 
> Many people think any inbound acess from the internet is a
> security issue and thus should never be the default.

The document describes how to set up an NTP server. As chronyd blocks
NTP access by default, the allow command has to be used in order to
have a working NTP server.

> > - don't start chronyd with -s -r options as they need to be
> >   configured first,
> 
> Uh, no.  They just work.  But I guess foor the sake of keeping
> things dead simple these two could go.

The -s option won't work unless the config has specified a rtcfile and
there are valid RTC coefficients in it. The -r option works only if
a dumpdir directory is specified and there are valid source histories.
Both options have some caveats and shouldn't be used without reading
the documentation first.

> >  -f is needed only when using a non-default
> > location
> 
> And one of our bigger support issues is users do not know thir
> compiled in default.  Thus we force it.

Using a different config when starting chronyd manually than is used
normally with the distro service looks like an administration
nightmare to me.

The document says "Check your distributions documentation for the
correct location." The location is written in chronyd(8) and
chrony.conf(5) man pages. Also chronyd will print the location if the
file is missing.  

> > - fix some formatting and other minor details
> 
> You changed the commmand line from root to user.  Not a good idea.

It's usually a good idea to not run commands under root unless it's
necessary. It follows the ntpq examples in the howto.

> resubmit just the -s removal and that will happen.

I see you already removed the options in git. Note that the executable
is called chronyd, not chrony.

Please feel free to include other changes from the patch as you see
fit.

-- 
Miroslav Lichvar