[PATCH v2 3/4] hv_util: use do_adjtimex() to update system time

From: Vitaly Kuznetsov
Date: Wed Jan 04 2017 - 12:34:41 EST


With TimeSync version 4 protocol support we started updating system time
continuously through the whole lifetime of Hyper-V guests. Every 5 seconds
there is a time sample from the host which triggers do_settimeofday[64]().
While the time from the host is very accurate such adjustments may cause
issues:
- Time is jumping forward and backward, some applications may misbehave.
- In case an NTP client is run in parallel things may go south, e.g. when
an NTP client tries to adjust tick/frequency with ADJ_TICK/ADJ_FREQUENCY
the Hyper-V module will not see this changes and time will oscillate and
never converge.
- Systemd starts annoying you by printing "Time has been changed" every 5
seconds to the system log.

Instead of calling do_settimeofday64() we can pretend being an NTP client
and use do_adjtimex(). Do do_settimeofday64() in case the difference is too
big or ICTIMESYNCFLAG_SYNC flag was set in the request.

Signed-off-by: Vitaly Kuznetsov <vkuznets@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes since v1:
- do do_settimeofday64() when ICTIMESYNCFLAG_SYNC flag is present in the
request (Alex Ng)
- add pr_debug() for the case when do_adjtimex() fails (Alex Ng)
---
drivers/hv/hv_util.c | 32 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
1 file changed, 29 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/hv/hv_util.c b/drivers/hv/hv_util.c
index 94719eb..7e97231 100644
--- a/drivers/hv/hv_util.c
+++ b/drivers/hv/hv_util.c
@@ -182,9 +182,11 @@ struct adj_time_work {
static void hv_set_host_time(struct work_struct *work)
{
struct adj_time_work *wrk;
- s64 host_tns;
+ s64 host_tns, our_tns, delta;
u64 newtime;
- struct timespec64 host_ts;
+ struct timespec64 host_ts, our_ts;
+ struct timex txc = {0};
+ int ret;

wrk = container_of(work, struct adj_time_work, work);

@@ -205,7 +207,31 @@ static void hv_set_host_time(struct work_struct *work)
host_tns = (newtime - WLTIMEDELTA) * 100;
host_ts = ns_to_timespec64(host_tns);

- do_settimeofday64(&host_ts);
+ getnstimeofday64(&our_ts);
+ our_tns = timespec64_to_ns(&our_ts);
+
+ /* Difference between our time and host time */
+ delta = host_tns - our_tns;
+
+ /*
+ * Do raw do_settimeofday64() in case delta is too big or we were
+ * ordered to sync our time by the host.
+ */
+ if (abs(delta) > MAXPHASE || wrk->flags & ICTIMESYNCFLAG_SYNC) {
+ do_settimeofday64(&host_ts);
+ return;
+ }
+
+ txc.modes = ADJ_TICK | ADJ_FREQUENCY | ADJ_OFFSET | ADJ_NANO |
+ ADJ_STATUS;
+ txc.tick = TICK_USEC;
+ txc.freq = 0;
+ txc.status = STA_PLL;
+ txc.offset = delta;
+
+ ret = do_adjtimex(&txc);
+ if (ret)
+ pr_debug("Failed to adjust system time: %d\n", ret);
}

/*
--
2.9.3