It was recently proposed on the misc OpenBSD mailing list that support for the Network Time Protocol (NTP) should be added to the "base" package. Ken Lalonde suggested, "Maintaining accurate time is critical on firewalls, or any secure application. OpenBSD should support this out of the box." OpenBSD Founder Theo de Raadt [interview] quickly replied, "We cannot. The code is not free enough."

The OpenBSD project is known for strictly enforcing its policy that OpenBSD remain completely free. The specific clause in the NTP license preventing it from future inclusion reads, "Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appears in all". Theo explains the problem:

"This is a misplaced modifier that has a 2nd meaning -- that it cannot be sold. I've talked to lawyers. It's a real problem, and they say they won't fix it."

NTP support was actually removed from the kernel prior to the release of OpenBSD 3.2, however as an oversight, even the current OpenBSD 3.3 [story] release still includes the source for ntp on the CD in the ports directory. Theo explained that due to this license incompatibility, NTP will no longer be included on future CDs (though it can still be distributed via FTP, as there is no charge for this service). The OpenBSD CD does include rdate, which allows one to synchronize with an SNTP/NTP server.

From: Ken Lalonde
To: misc AT openbsd.org
Subject: NTP considered basic
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 13:02:45 -0400 (EDT)

I'd like to encourage the OpenBSD developers to move
NTP support into the "base" package.
Maintaining accurate time is critical on firewalls, or
any secure application.  OpenBSD should support this out of the box.

That said, let me add a note of thanks:  I've been using
and hacking around Unix for 23 years now, and just did my
first OpenBSD install last week.  Man, what a breath of fresh air.
Thank you for a beautiful piece of engineering.

From: Theo de Raadt
Subject: Re: NTP considered basic 
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 11:13:34 -0600

> I'd like to encourage the OpenBSD developers to move
> NTP support into the "base" package.

We cannot.  The code is not free enough.



From: Rick J. Andrews
Subject: Re: NTP considered basic 
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 13:35:48 -0700

>  Theo de Raadt Wednesday, May 14, 2003 10:14 AM
>  > I'd like to encourage the OpenBSD developers to move
>  > NTP support into the "base" package.
>
>  We cannot.  The code is not free enough.

I'm curious if you could be more specific here, because at first glance
it seems the NTP copyright is at even less restrictive than the berkeley
copyright (i.e. it does not require mention in advertising as bsd's
does).  I copy the entirety below.
Rick
***********************************************************************
*                                                                     *
* Copyright (c) David L. Mills 1992-2003                              *
*                                                                     *
* Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and   *
* its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby         *
* granted, provided that the above copyright notice appears in all    *
* copies and that both the copyright notice and this permission       *
* notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name        *
* University of Delaware not be used in advertising or publicity      *
* pertaining to distribution of the software without specific,        *
* written prior permission. The University of Delaware makes no       *
* representations about the suitability this software for any         *
* purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied          *
* warranty.                                                           *
*                                                                     *
***********************************************************************



From: Theo de Raadt
Subject: Re: NTP considered basic 
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 14:45:08 -0600

* Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and   *
* its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby         *
* granted, provided that the above copyright notice appears in all    *

this is a misplaced modifier that has a 2nd meaning -- that it cannot
be sold.  i've talked to lawyers.  it's a real problem, and they say
they won't fix it.

sorry.



From: Hugo Villeneuve
Subject: Re: NTP considered basic
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 23:43:30 -0400

I don't understand then why it's ok to put it on the CDs as packages.

-- 
Hugo Villeneuve
http://EINTR.net/



From: Theo de Raadt
Subject: ntp
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 21:57:35 -0600

ntp was included on the CDs in error.

It will never be on future CDs -- because of the misplaced modifier in
the license. If you have a problem with this, contact the author of
it, as we did back during Boston Hackathon 2 years ago...

That gives us more room, for something else which is free.

From: Henning Brauer
Subject: Re: NTP considered basic
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 13:22:13 -0600

On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 01:02:45PM -0400, Ken Lalonde wrote:
> I'd like to encourage the OpenBSD developers to move
> NTP support into the "base" package.
> Maintaining accurate time is critical on firewalls, or
> any secure application.  OpenBSD should support this out of the box.

it does. run rdate -ncav ntp.wherever.net periodically from cron and 
you're done.

-- 
http://2suck.net/hhwl.html - http://www.bsws.de/
Unix is very simple, but it takes a genius to understand the simplicity.
(Dennis Ritchie)



From: Thorsten Glaser
Subject: Re: NTP considered basic
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 20:14:01 +0000 (UTC)

begin  electrogrammati illius Henning Brauer

>it does. run rdate -ncav ntp.wherever.net periodically from cron and
>you're done.

And don't forget to set the time zone correctly.
Assuming Henning's example, (in the hope to not offend you,
Henning, if you use UTC like me), he has used

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin /etc/localtime

before, with ntpdate. Since he uses the -c (correct leap seconds)
parametre to rdate, he will have to use

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/right/Europe/Berlin /etc/localtime

instead, else his clock will be off by (currently) 22 seconds.
This is even a FAQ.

Note: if you don't {want to} use -c and right/ zonefiles, but
rather no -c and posix/ zonefiles, you will be unable to cor-
rectly calculate time _spans_ in any programme, i.e. "how old,
in seconds, is person $foo".

//Thorsten
-- 
Willst Du wegen dummer User immer 'Ja, ich will' nach einem rm an /dev/tty
eingeben müssen?		-- Bodo Eggert in de.alt.sysadmin.recovery

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