Re: ntpd: leap-seconds.list expiration

On Wed, Dec 13, 2023, 3:47 PM Miroslav Lachman <000.fbsd@quip.cz> wrote:

> On 13/12/2023 05:03, Michael Proto wrote:
> > Noticed recently (in both my upgraded and newly-installed hosts) that
> > the leap-seconds.list file is in danger of expiration very soon (12/28).
> > It appears the default download location in /etc/defaults/rc.conf
> > (https://www.ietf.org/timezones/data/leap-seconds.list
> > <https://www.ietf.org/timezones/data/leap-seconds.list>) no longer
> > carries this file, or at least it says plainly so when I try to fetch it.
> >
> > I've been able to work around it locally by
> > setting ntp_leapfile_sources="
> https://hpiers.obspm.fr/iers/bul/bulc/ntp/leap-seconds.list <
> https://hpiers.obspm.fr/iers/bul/bulc/ntp/leap-seconds.list>" in
> /etc/rc.conf from IERS, though in searching where to fetch this there are
> questions of copyright in regards to distribution so while this should work
> for end-users I don't know how applicable this would be upstream (submitted
> https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=275737 <
> https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=275737>). I figured I'd
> throw it out here for visibility to operators as my workaround should work
> in that case.
>

It's not at all clear there are issues with redistribution. Any files that
require a license or purchase are locked down at the web server level. The
issues sound more on the FUD end of the scale. BIPM has never tried to
enforce any ip claims to this file. They have, many years ago, displayed an
ignorance of what people want in terms of a clear grant... the bipm, or
it's subsidiaries, has published all kinds of other data that's clearly
more valuable. Leap seconds are a fact that has low to no creative content.
It's not even clear you could copyright it... the comments maybe... but I'm
not seeing any kind of real risk here.

Warner


Thank you for this link! I tried to find actual file yesterday. Now I
> fixed it in ntp_leapfile_sources on all my machines.
>
> Best regards
> Miroslav Lachman
>
>