Bug#1020865: ntpsec-ntpdate: ntpdate-debian doesn't work due to missing dependency

[Dima Kogan]

Package: ntpsec-ntpdate
Version: 1.2.1+dfsg1-7+b1
Severity: normal
X-Debbugs-Cc: none, Dima Kogan <dko...@debian.org>

Hi. I see this:

root@shorty:/home/dima# ntpdate-debian
sed: can't read /etc/ntpsec/ntp.conf: No such file or directory
ntpdig: no eligible servers

The missing file is in the "ntpsec" package, which is not in the
Depends, and maybe should be there. If I install this package I see
this:

root@shorty:/home/dima# ntpdate-debian
ntpdig: socket error on transmission: [Errno 99] Cannot assign requested address
ntpdig: socket error on transmission: [Errno 99] Cannot assign requested address
ntpdig: socket error on transmission: [Errno 99] Cannot assign requested address
ntpdig: socket error on transmission: [Errno 99] Cannot assign requested address
{"time":"2022-09-27T11:54:36.227571-0700","offset":-0.001772,"precision":0.073811,"host":"0.debian.pool.ntp.org","ip":"79.133.44.139","stratum":1,"leap":"no-leap","adjusted":false}

This is probably the ipv6 bug: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=971523

The console output doesn't tell me if the errors were fatal or not. Were
they actually warnings? It should tell me.

Also, the output is qualitatively different from what it used to be not
very long ago. It used to be human-readable text, which told you the
time offset, and told you that the clock has been adjusted. Now it's
JSON, and I guess the clock isn't adjusted? "ntpdate-debian --help"
doesn't tell me how to make it adjust the clock. Can we make the
ntpdate-debian tool do what it did before? This is a breaking change in
behavior.

Thanks.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: bookworm/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (800, 'unstable'), (700, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'stable')
merged-usr: no
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 5.16.0-5-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf-8 (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL set to en_US.utf-8), LANGUAGE=en_US.utf-8
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages ntpsec-ntpdate depends on:
ii netbase 6.3
ii ntpsec-ntpdig 1.2.1+dfsg1-7+b1

ntpsec-ntpdate recommends no packages.

ntpsec-ntpdate suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

[Richard Laager]

On 9/27/22 14:00, Dima Kogan wrote:
> root@shorty:/home/dima# ntpdate-debian
> sed: can't read /etc/ntpsec/ntp.conf: No such file or directory

Yep, I see the issue. I'll upload a fix.

> The missing file is in the "ntpsec" package, which is not in the
> Depends, and maybe should be there. If I install this package I see
> this:
>
> root@shorty:/home/dima# ntpdate-debian
> ntpdig: socket error on transmission: [Errno 99] Cannot assign requested address
> ntpdig: socket error on transmission: [Errno 99] Cannot assign requested address
> ntpdig: socket error on transmission: [Errno 99] Cannot assign requested address
> ntpdig: socket error on transmission: [Errno 99] Cannot assign requested address
> {"time":"2022-09-27T11:54:36.227571-0700","offset":-0.001772,"precision":0.073811,"host":"0.debian.pool.ntp.org","ip":"79.133.44.139","stratum":1,"leap":"no-leap","adjusted":false}
>
> This is probably the ipv6 bug: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=971523
>
> The console output doesn't tell me if the errors were fatal or not. Were
> they actually warnings? It should tell me.

These are not fatal. I've submitted a patch upstream to suppress those
messages except in debug mode, since they are clearly confusing:

https://gitlab.com/NTPsec/ntpsec/-/merge_requests/1288

Debian bug #971523 probably should have been marked fixed already once
the upstream change to make them non-fatal was uploaded to Debian. But
given I'm submitting another patch, I'll leave it open.

If you have further commentary on this part, let's discuss in 971523.

> Also, the output is qualitatively different from what it used to be not
> very long ago. It used to be human-readable text

...
> Now it's JSON

Yeah, I'll disable that JSON.

--
Richard
--
Richard