linuxntpntpd

Will Linux servers running NTPD be affected by plans to add a leap second in 2015?


I have read that there are plans to add a leap second in June 2015. At work we are running a number of Linux (Ubuntu) servers with ntpd installed to keep the time in sync and correct across them.

Does anybody know how this time change will affect us, i.e. whether or not we need to do anything other than just let ntpd correct the time for us?

I can find no information on the sites for either NTP or NTPD.

For context, we run PHP/Apache/Solr/MySQL servers, and interact with third-party APIs that supply time-dependent responses, such as historical exchange rates or geolocations.


Solution

  • Leap seconds are inserted regularly, and no, you don't have to expect any problems or do anything because of it.

    If you're interested in the details of how NTP handles them, there's a write-up of it here. In a nutshell, NTP freezes time during a leap second, so there'll be (sort of) a second that's two times as long as usual.