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Re: getaddrinfo() may legally return ai_addr = NULL (ITS#1416)



On Mon, Oct 29, 2001 at 01:55:20PM +0000, peter.marschall@mayn.de wrote:
> Full_Name: Peter Marschall
> Version: 20.0.18
> OS: Linux 2.4.x
> URL: ftp://ftp.openldap.org/incoming/peter.marschall-011029.patch
> Submission from: (NULL) (194.145.150.12)
> 
> 
> The man page for getaddrinfo() in the GNU C library states:       
>        If node is NULL, the network address in each socket struc-
>        ture  is  initialized  according  to  the AI_PASSIVE flag,
>        which is set in the ai_flags member of the  hints  parame-
>        ter.  The network address in each socket structure will be
>        left unspecified if AI_PASSIVE flag is set.  This is  used
>        by server applications, which intend to accept client con-
>        nections on any network address.  The network address will
>        be set to the loopback interface address if the AI_PASSIVE
>        flag is not set.  This is  used  by  client  applications,
>        which  intend  to  connect to a server running on the same
>        network host.
> So, at least for glibc, the ai_addr field of the addrinfo structure 
> may be legally NULL when the AI_PASSIVE flag is set and host is NULL.

I believe this is just poor language. The draft specs state that if
AI_PASSIVE is set, the address will be set to INADDR_ANY for IPv4 and
IN6ADDR_ANY_INIT for IPv6. I think this is what is meant by unspecified
above. Have you found getaddrinfo() implementations that return just a
NULL pointer? If so, which? The GNU C library code I have seen, seems
not to return a NULL pointer, but I might have missed something.

Stig