linux/include
David Woodhouse d375af5899 timekeeping: Drive time_offset skew via per-tick ntp_error transfer
Currently, the phase offset of time_offset and time_adjust is delivered
by adjusting tick_length in second_overflow(), and immediately draining
time_offset/time_adjust by the amount that the tick_length adjustment is
*estimated* to cause. This is fairly approximate, in part because it is
not always correct to assume that precisely NTP_INTERVAL_FREQ ticks will
occur between one call to second_overflow() and the next. It could also
over and under-run in the final second of delivery.

Instead of inflating tick_length, transfer the intended skew directly
into ntp_error each tick to achieve the desired rate.

In second_overflow(), calculate skew_delta which is the per-tick slew
rate, in the same units as time_offset: (ns << NTP_SCALE_SHIFT) / HZ.

In logarithmic_accumulation(), drain up to 'skew_delta' time units from
time_offset into ntp_error to drive the overall effective rate. The new
ntp_drain_skew() function returns the amount which is actually 'claimed'
by time_offset (and in a future patch, time_adjust). Any overrun which
is delivered by the changed 'mult' (as described below) but not claimed
by ntp_drain_skew() will remain in ntp_error to be corrected away in
subsequent ticks.

Simply transferring the precise amount from time_offset to ntp_error
would be sufficent to make the time *eventually* converge, however the
skew delivered is limited by the choice of { mult, mult+1 } each tick
and thus the convergence would be extremely slow.

In theory we could inflate ntp_err_mult with the magnitude of ntp_error
in the general case — but that would cause overcorrection in a tickless
kernel. Instead, in timekeeping_adjust(), take skew_delta into account
when calculating 'mult', such that the available {mult, mult+1} choices
bracket the overall effective rate *including* the skew, to avoid the
delta just building up in ntp_error.

The effect is that the inflated 'mult' causes ntp_error to grow because
xtime_interval is (e.g.) longer than the true tick_length. But then the
same delta is removed again as it's drained from time_offset.

This gives behaviour equivalent to the old tick_length += delta approach
but with exact per-tick accounting of the time_offset actually imparted
to the clock, and no overrun.

Signed-off-by: David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>
Assisted-by: Kiro:claude-opus-4.8
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260621220051.1030462-5-dwmw2@infradead.org
2026-07-10 09:20:54 +02:00
..
acpi Driver core changes for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-15 12:41:17 +05:30
asm-generic mm.git review status for mm-hotfixes-stable..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-06-21 13:20:19 -07:00
clocksource
crypto Networking changes for 7.2. 2026-06-17 08:17:00 +01:00
cxl cxl/region: Introduce devm_cxl_probe_mem() 2026-06-12 13:47:30 -07:00
drm drm fixes for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-26 17:03:48 -07:00
dt-bindings This is all clk driver updates. Mostly new SoC support for 2026-06-25 12:48:57 -07:00
hyperv
keys keys: Pin request_key_auth payload in instantiate paths 2026-06-15 15:19:13 +03:00
kunit linux_kselftest-kunit-7.2-rc1 2026-06-16 16:33:57 +05:30
kvm Merge branch kvm-arm64/vgic-v5-PPI-fixes into kvmarm-master/next 2026-06-12 09:08:31 +01:00
linux timekeeping: Drive time_offset skew via per-tick ntp_error transfer 2026-07-10 09:20:54 +02:00
math-emu
media media: v4l2-fwnode: Fix subdev owner overwritten in v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() 2026-06-05 10:28:03 +03:00
memory
misc
net Including fixes from netfilter and IPsec. 2026-06-25 12:25:36 -07:00
pcmcia
ras
rdma RDMA v7.2 merge window 2026-06-18 08:16:21 -07:00
rv rv: Prevent task migration while handling per-CPU events 2026-06-03 12:33:25 +02:00
scsi
soc This is all clk driver updates. Mostly new SoC support for 2026-06-25 12:48:57 -07:00
sound ASoC: Fixes for v7.2 2026-06-26 07:33:15 +02:00
target
trace This adds support for manual client session reset in CephFS, allowing 2026-06-26 16:15:53 -07:00
uapi y2038: uapi: Use 64-bit __kernel_old_timespec::tv_nsec on x32 2026-07-07 23:59:24 +02:00
ufs Merge branch 7.1/scsi-fixes into 7.2/scsi-staging 2026-06-15 21:01:30 -04:00
vdso futex: Provide infrastructure to plug the non contended robust futex unlock race 2026-06-03 11:38:52 +02:00
video
xen xen: constify xsd_errors array 2026-06-08 09:00:06 +02:00
Kbuild