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Date:      Tue, 9 Jul 2002 14:00:38 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Kelly Yancey <kbyanc@posi.net>
To:        Juan Francisco Rodriguez Hervella <jrh@it.uc3m.es>
Cc:        freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: About "sockaddr_in" and "sockaddr_in6" structures
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.05.10207091352310.3338-100000@kronos.networkrichmond.com>
In-Reply-To: <3D2AE6BB.7CD0CEC7@it.uc3m.es>

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On Tue, 9 Jul 2002, Juan Francisco Rodriguez Hervella wrote:

> Hello:
> 
> I'm seeing that "struct sockaddr_in" has a field like this:
> 
> char sin_zero[8];
> 
> Why ?
> Could anyone explain me what's used for ?
> 
> Could it be bad if I'd add the same field to
> "sockaddr_in6" ?
> 
> PS: I'm trying to implement divert sockets for
> IPv6 using the KAME implementation of "ip6fw".
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> JFRH.
> 

  The minimum size of a sockaddr's address portion (as defined in
sys/socket.h) is 14 bytes (max is SOCK_MAXADDRLEN = 255); combined with
the size of the sa_len and sa_family fields you get a minimum length of 16
bytes for the entire structure.  The sin_zero field of sockaddr_in is to
pad the structure out to this minimum length.  Given that a sockaddr_in6
is already larger than the minimum required, there really isn't any point
in adding the padding field to it.

  Kelly

--
Kelly Yancey -- kbyanc@{posi.net,FreeBSD.org}


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