- * *isn't* so aligned), and it's defined as a structure in the hopes
- * that this makes it harder to naively use EXTRACT_BE_U_4() to extract
- * the value - in many cases you just want to use UNALIGNED_MEMCPY() to
- * copy its value, so that it remains in network byte order.
+ * *isn't* so aligned). We have separate EXTRACT_ calls for them;
+ * sometimes you want the host-byte-order value, other times you want
+ * the network-byte-order value.
+ *
+ * Don't use EXTRACT_BE_U_4() on them, use EXTRACT_IPV4_TO_HOST_ORDER()
+ * if you want them in host byte order and EXTRACT_IPV4_TO_NETWORK_ORDER()
+ * if you want them in network byte order (which you want with system APIs
+ * that expect network-order IPv4 addresses, such as inet_ntop()).
+ *
+ * If, on your little-endian machine (e.g., an "IBM-compatible PC", no matter
+ * what the OS, or an Intel Mac, no matter what the OS), you get the wrong
+ * answer, and you've used EXTRACT_BE_U_4(), do *N*O*T* "fix" this by using
+ * EXTRACT_LE_U_4(), fix it by using EXTRACT_IPV4_TO_NETWORK_ORDER(),
+ * otherwise you're breaking the result on big-endian machines (e.g.,
+ * most PowerPC/Power ISA machines, System/390 and z/Architecture, SPARC,
+ * etc.).
projects / tcpdump / blobdiff