httptime

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Small utility to detect and correct time skew of the system clock

This utility can update your system time based on the Date header of an HTTP
response. This is useful in cases where you need to update your time without an
NTP daemon.

"""

import datetime
import gc
import socket
import sys
import time


addr = ("1.1.1.1", 80)
"""The address of the HTTP server to connect to.

This can be any HTTP server as long as the server time is reasonably accurate.

"""

# The script will display the time skew without any arguments. If the --set
# argument is passed, it sets the system time instead.
_set = "--set" in sys.argv[1:]


def send_request(f):
    """Send a HEAD request to the server.

    This function sends a HEAD request to the server. It uses TCP sockets
    instead of an HTTP library in order to minimize the number of unnecessary
    data.

    This helps reduce the data transfer and makes the timing more accurate.

    Parameters
    ----------
    f : file
        The file object that is bound to the socket.

    Returns
    -------
    None

    """

    f.write(b"HEAD /.well-known/time HTTP/1.1\r\n")
    f.write(f"Host: {addr[0]}\r\n".encode("ascii"))
    f.write(b"User-Agent: httptime\r\n\r\n")
    f.flush()


def parse_http_date(date):
    """Parse an HTTP date into a Unix timestamp.

    Parameters
    ----------
    date : str
        The date to parse (from the HTTP header)

    Returns
    -------
    float
        Unix timestamp of the parsed date

    """
    fmt = "%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S GMT"
    dt = datetime.datetime.strptime(date, fmt)
    return dt.replace(tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc).timestamp()


def get_time(f):
    """Get the current datetime from the server

    This function makes an HTTP request to the server, parses the date header
    and returns it as a timestamp.

    Parameters
    ----------
    f : file
        The file object that is bound to the socket

    Returns
    -------
    transmit : float
        The timestamp of when the request was sent.
    receive : float
        The timestamp of when the response was received.
    datetime : float
        The date header returned by the server parsed into a unix timestamp

    """
    tr = time.time()
    send_request(f)

    dh = ""

    for line in f:
        line = line.strip()

        if line.startswith(b"Date: "):
            dh = line[6:].decode("ascii")

        # An empty line in a HEAD request means the reponse is completed.
        if not line:
            rc = time.time()
            return tr, rc, parse_http_date(dh)


def get_skew(f, N):
    """Determine the time skew by making N requests to the server.

    Usually 4 iterations is enough for an accurate sync and anything above 8
    doesn't provide extra accuracy.

    Parameters
    ----------
    f : file
        The file object that is bound to the socket.
    N : int
        The number of requests to make.

    Returns
    -------
    float
        The time skew in seconds.

    Notes
    -----
    The `Date` header has a one second granularity, but it is possible to get
    more sub-second accuracy by making multiple requests and timing them
    correctly.

    The data has one-second resolution, but we can get more accuracy out of it
    if we can determine at which point it is 10:15:12.000 instead of just
    10:15:12.

    The function maintains two values through the iterations, the lower bound of
    the time skew and the upper bound of the time skew.

    At the end of each iteration, we determine how much time we need to sleep in
    order to align ourselves better with the passing of each second on the
    server. The better aligned we are, the smaller the spread between the upper
    and lower bounds.

    Once the spread is small enough, or we do a certain number of iterations, we
    can get the mean value of the upper and lower bounds, and use that as the
    skew.

    """
    lower = float("-inf")
    upper = float("inf")

    for i in range(N):
        transmit, receive, ts = get_time(f)

        _lower = (transmit - 1) - ts
        _upper = receive - ts
        rtt = receive - transmit

        lower = max(_lower, lower)
        upper = min(_upper, upper)

        dt = 0.5 * (lower + upper) - 0.5 * rtt

        if i == N - 1:
            return (lower + upper) * 0.5
        catch_up = frac(dt - frac(time.time()))
        time.sleep(catch_up)


def frac(n):
    """
    Return the fractional part of a time value.

    Parameters
    ----------
    n : int
        The time value

    Returns
    -------
    int
        Fractional part of the time value
    """
    n = n - int(n)
    if n < 0:
        n = 1 + n
    return n

def set_time(skew):
    """Corrects the time skew by using the settime call.

    Parameters
    ----------
    skew : float
        The time skew in seconds
    
    Returns
    -------
    None

    Raises
    ------
    PermissionError
        If the current user does not have permission to change the system clock.

    See Also
    --------
    time.clock_settime : Sets the system time

    """

    new_time = time.time() - skew
    time.clock_settime(time.CLOCK_REALTIME, new_time)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    gc.disable()
    conn = socket.create_connection(addr)
    f = conn.makefile("rwb")

    skew = get_skew(f, 8)
    conn.close()

    if _set:
        set_time(skew)
    elif skew > 0:
        print(f"Your time is {skew} seconds ahead")
    else:
        print(f"Your time is {abs(skew)} seconds behind")