Vern, Jim, Dave:

Several times in the past few weeks we have seen an invocation of tconvert produce the output:

tconvert NOTICE: Leap-second info in /ligo/apps/linux-x86_64/ligotools/config/public/tcleaps.txt is no longer certain to be valid; We got valid information from the web, but were unable to update the local cache file: No permission to write in directory /ligo/apps/linux-x86_64/ligotools/config/public
 

This afternoon we spent some time tracking this down. tconvert uses a web server in france to access the IERS bulletin-C information page which alerts us to upcoming leap seconds. It appears that this server was pure HTTP until January 11th this year. It is now an HTTP server which redirects the request to a HTTPS page. The TCL code inside of tconvert interprets the redirection return message as an error. It then marks the expiration of the leap second information for 24 hours in the future.

The procedure we used to maintain future leap second notification was to twice a year run tconvert as user controls, which updated a leap seoncds database file (owned by controls) which was good for the next six months. With the recent HTTP issues, controls now produces a file which is good for only a day.

This afternoon we ran a modified tconvert which access a different leap seconds HTTP page and the LHO CDS database file is now good through 8th August. In the mean time we will raise an FRS and work with Peter S for a long term solution.