ntpd 1.0.0-rc.5

Full-featured implementation of NTP with NTS support
Documentation

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ntpd-rs

ntpd-rs is an NTP implementation written in Rust, with a focus on security and stability. It includes client and server functionality and supports NTS.

If a feature you need is missing please let us know by opening an issue.

Installation

The recommended way of installing ntpd-rs is with the pre-built packages from the releases page. The installers automatically handle setting up users, permissions and configuration. Alternatively, you can use cargo install ntpd or build from source by cloning the repository yourself.

Build from source

Currently, ntpd-rs only supports Linux-based operating systems. Our current testing only targets Linux kernels after version 5.0.0, older kernels may work but this is not guaranteed.

ntpd-rs is written in rust. We strongly recommend using rustup to install a rust toolchain, because the version provided by system package managers tends to be out of date. Be sure to use a recent version of the rust compiler. To build ntpd-rs run

cargo build --release

This produces a ntp-daemon binary at target/release/ntp-daemon, which is the main NTP daemon. Before running the ntpd-rs daemon, make sure that no other NTP daemons are running. E.g. when chrony is running

systemctl stop chronyd

The ntpd-rs daemon requires elevated permissions to change the system clock.

sudo ./target/release/ntp-daemon -c ./ntp.toml

By default, at least 3 sources are needed for the algorithm to change the time. After a few minutes you should start to see messages indicating the offset of your machine from the server.

2023-04-11T10:06:24.847375Z  INFO ntp_proto::algorithm::kalman: Offset: 1.7506740305607742+-12.951528666965439ms, frequency: 8.525844072881435+-5.089483351832892ppm
2023-04-11T10:06:25.443852Z  INFO ntp_proto::algorithm::kalman: Offset: 1.8947020578044949+-12.981792974220694ms, frequency: 7.654657944152439+-3.3911904299378386ppm
2023-04-11T10:06:25.443979Z  INFO ntp_proto::algorithm::kalman: Changed frequency, current steer 4.26346751414286ppm, desired freq 0ppm

A complete description of how the daemon can be configured can be found in the documentation found in the documentation.

Minimum supported rust version

We make no guarantees about supporting older versions of rust. When building from source (either manually or with cargo install) use the latest rust version to prevent issues.

We are committed to keep ntpd-rs working on at least the latest stable and beta compilers. Beyond this, we keep track of the current minimum rust version needed to compile our code for purposes of documentation. However, right now we do not have a policy guaranteeing a minimum amount of time we will support a stable rust release beyond the 6 weeks during which it is the latest stable version.

Please note that the Rust project only supports the latest stable rust release. As this is the only release that will receive any security updates, we STRONGLY recommend using the latest stable rust version for compiling ntpd-rs for daily use.

Package substructure

Currently, the code is split up into several separate crates:

  • ntp-proto contains the packet parsing and the algorithms needed for clock selection, filtering and steering.
  • ntp-os-clock contains the unsafe code needed to interface with system clocks.
  • ntp-udp contains the unsafe code needed to deal with timestamping on the network layer.
  • ntpd contains the entrypoints for all our binaries and the code for the daemon (ntp-daemon), control client (ntp-ctl) and OpenMetrics/prometheus exporter (ntp-metrics-exporter).

All unsafe code is contained within the ntp-os-clock and ntp-udp packages, which are kept as small as possible. All interfaces exposed by these crates should be safe. For a more detailed description of how ntpd-rs is structured, see the development documentation.

Roadmap

In Q1 2023 we completed our work on NTS. Our implementation is now full-featured, it supports NTP client and server with NTS.

Our roadmap for 2023-2024:

  • Q3 2023: Stable release
  • Q4 2023: Experimental features, NTS pool, NTPv5
  • Q4 2023 / Q1 2024: Packaging for Linux distributions
  • Q1-Q4 2024: Packaging and industry adoption, maintenance & community work

We seek sponsorship for features and maintenance to continue our work. Contact us via pendulum@tweedegolf.com if you are interested!

History

2022

The project originates from ISRG's project Prossimo, as part of their mission to achieve memory safety for the Internet's most critical infrastructure.

Prossimo funded the initial development of the NTP client and server, and NTS support. The NTP initiative page on Prossimo's website tells the story.

2023

After completion of the initial development, the project's ownership moved from Prossimo to Tweede golf in April 2023. See the NTP announcement for more information.

Tweede golf is the long-term maintainer of ntpd-rs, that is now part of Tweede golf's Project Pendulum. Pendulum is building modern, open-source implementations of the Network Time Protocol (ntpd-rs) and the Precision Time Protocol (Statime).

In July of 2023 the Sovereign Tech Fund invested in Pendulum, securing ntpd-rs development and maintenance in 2023, and maintenance and adoption work in 2024.

STF