Distributed filesystems are most effective when the server and client
clocks are synchronised. Embedded devices often use NFS for their
root filesystem but typically do not contain an RTC, so the clocks of
the NFS server and the embedded device will be out-of-sync when the root
filesystem is mounted (and may not be synchronised until late in the
boot process).
Extend ipconfig with the ability to export IP addresses of NTP servers
it discovers to /proc/net/ipconfig/ntp_servers. They can be supplied as
follows:
- If ipconfig is configured manually via the "ip=" or "nfsaddrs="
kernel command line parameters, one NTP server can be specified in
the new "<ntp0-ip>" parameter.
- If ipconfig is autoconfigured via DHCP, request DHCP option 42 in
the DHCPDISCOVER message, and record the IP addresses of up to three
NTP servers sent by the responding DHCP server in the subsequent
DHCPOFFER message.
ipconfig will only write the NTP server IP addresses it discovers to
/proc/net/ipconfig/ntp_servers, one per line (in the order received from
the DHCP server, if DHCP autoconfiguration is used); making use of these
NTP servers is the responsibility of a user space process (e.g. an
initrd/initram script that invokes an NTP client before mounting an NFS
root filesystem).
Signed-off-by: Chris Novakovic <chris@chrisn.me.uk>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>