[Dovecot] Time moved backwards

[Bill Cole]

At 3:58 PM +0200 5/13/08, AndraÏ 'ruskie' Levstik wrote:
>On 15:48:42 2008-05-13 Bill Cole <dovecot-20061108 at billmail.scconsult.com>
>wrote:
>>  At 11:31 AM +0400 5/13/08, Eugene wrote:
>>  >Hi Timo,
>>  >
>>  >From: "Timo Sirainen" <tss at iki.fi>
>>  >>>I suggest that Dovecot simply terminate the current connections
>>  >>>(causing the client to reconnect) or -- if the time change is really
>>  >>>that much of a problem -- to restart itself automatically.
>>  >
>>  >>I guess terminating all current connections and restarting all
>>  >>processes would be pretty safe, but it's not really a high priority
>>  >>change for me..
>>  >
>>  >Nevertheless, it would be very nice if you could fix it. It's a
>>  >fairly big availability problem (for us, at least).
>>
>>  Then you have a badly broken system. There is no explanation for time
>>  going backwards on a server on a frequent unplanned basis that is not
>>  reducible to administrative incompetence or malfunctioning hardware
>>  (and the latter as a chronic issue can be seen as just a special case
>>  of the former.)
>>
>
>Harsh...

I think it is not so harsh if you read what I wrote carefully.

Part of what I meant to convey was that the real 
circumstances of a clock jumping backwards ought 
to be rare and predictable, such as a long period 
unpowered, either long enough to drain the clock 
battery or just long enough for the system clock 
to drift more than 1/8 of a second. If your 
system clock doesn't stay pretty close across a 
regular reboot, you have a hardware problem (most 
likely a dead clock battery...)

I should probably also note that I did not use 
'incompetence' as a generic term and it does not 
mean 'stupid' or 'bad' or anything else more 
general, vague, and  pejorative.


-- 
Bill Cole
bill at scconsult.com