Re: linux-ipsec: apps/utils/libs that parse IP/netbits

If we're inventing new routines for parsing IP addresses, let's make sure the API will work with IPv6 addresses without change to the calling programs. (I think this one will, from a brief look, but someone should look longer, and/or pass the routines to the Linux IPv6 team for their review.)

atosubnet() masks out the non-network part of the address as well as setting the mask value. This is bogus. 1.2.3.4/8 should come out as 1.2.3.4/8, not as 1.0.0.0/8. If the caller wants to throw away information provided by the user, it would cost them one line to do it; don't force it on them. For example, the address of an interface
(an argument to ifconfig) would be a full host (not network) address
with a subnet mask.

(If someone from the team would submit changes to the net-tools
maintainers to incorporate this parsing into Linux "ifconfig", I and a lot of other people would be ecstatic.)

        John Received on Thu Jul 16 00:10:30 1998