Overview

This is a Pure Python PPS interface following RFC2783. A PPPPS interface, if you would.

This has the unfortunate task of rolling-up some system and implementation specific knowledge into the Python layers. I could have thrown in the towel and added dependencies on cython and timepps interfaces on the system, but that would have required external dependencies and added build complexity.

Prerequisites

Python: 3.5+

OSs:

• Linux
• FreeBSD

Note that Linux support may vary depending on the platform, as the ioctl request values vary ever so slightly (and annoyingly). This is setup to use the asm-generic ioctl constants, which should work on ARM and x86_64. Buyer beware.

Interface

This strives to implement a reasonable subset of RFC2783 with python abstractions instead of nitty-gritty C structures. Under the hood, there are nitty-gritty C structures (care of ctypes) to interface with the kernel.

More information can be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2783.

This library does NOT support optional behavior, such as:

• the ntp_fp_t timestamp format
• kcbind

Installation

From pypi:

pip install pps-tools

From your local checkout:

pip install [--user] .

Usage

Command-line

This installs a pps-tools command with the fetch and params subcommands. Access to the PPS devices, especially setting parameters may require elevated privileges.

The fetch command mirrors time_pps_fetch(), printing out the assert or clear events for the PPS device, depending on its current mode. This includes the event time and count. The event assert or clear will be printed depending on the device's current mode.

$ pps-tools fetch /dev/pps0
assert 8078 @ 1627007608.079880476
assert 8079 @ 1627007609.093453169
...

The params command mirrors time_pps_getparams() and time_pps_setparams(). After optionally setting parameters, the updated params are fetched and printed to stdout. In addition, this prints out the capabilities (time_pps_getcap()) in a verbose fashion.

$ pps-tools params /dev/pps0
API Version         : 1
Assert Offset       : 0.0
Clear Offset        : 0.0
Current Mode        : 0x0001
  PPS_CAPTUREASSERT : 1
  PPS_CAPTURECLEAR  : 0
  PPS_OFFSETASSERT  : 0
  PPS_OFFSETCLEAR   : 0
  PPS_ECHOASSERT    : 0
  PPS_ECHOCLEAR     : 0
  PPS_CANWAIT       : 0
  PPS_CANPOLL       : 0
  PPS_TSFMT_TSPEC   : 0
  PPS_TSFMT_NTPFP   : 0
Capabilities        : 0x1133
  PPS_CAPTUREASSERT : 1
  PPS_CAPTURECLEAR  : 1
  PPS_OFFSETASSERT  : 1
  PPS_OFFSETCLEAR   : 1
  PPS_ECHOASSERT    : 0
  PPS_ECHOCLEAR     : 0
  PPS_CANWAIT       : 1
  PPS_CANPOLL       : 0
  PPS_TSFMT_TSPEC   : 1
  PPS_TSFMT_NTPFP   : 0

Python Library

The PPS interface can be used in Python through the PpsFile class. Example:

import pps_tools

with pps_tools.PpsFile("/dev/pps0") as ppsf:
    capabilities = ppsf.get_cap()
    print(pps_tools.data.cap_to_dict(capabilities))

    params = ppsf.get_params()
    params['mode'] = pps_tools.data.PPS_CAPTUREASSERT
    ppsf.set_params(**params)

    edge = ppsf.fetch(timeout=None)
    print(edge)

See the PpsFile method documentation for more information.

The library takes care of mapping Python objects to the underlying C structures for the given platform. It also takes care of calling CREATE and DESTROY ioctls for the given file, even though it doesn't usually do anything in the kernel.

The pps_tools.data module contains the C structures and ioctl constants for the given platform. These can be used if one wishes to interact with the PPS device directly.