As discussed before, and Bastien and I seem to agree, ideally we should define the following types:
struct sockaddr_storage { union { struct { sa_family_t ss_family; }; struct sockaddr_in sin; struct sockaddr_in6 sin6; struct sockaddr_un sun; // ... }; }; struct [[deprecated]] sockaddr { sa_family_t sa_family; }; union [[gnu::transparent_union]] sockaddr_ptr { struct sockaddr_storage *ss; struct sockaddr *sa; }; And then we could define APIs like: int bind(int sockfd, const union sockaddr_ptr *addr, socklen_t len); Link: <https://lore.kernel.org/linux-man/ab492040-2058-bcbe-c920-a9088a20f...@gmail.com/T/#u> Link: <https://inbox.sourceware.org/libc-alpha/20230120134043.10247-1-...@kernel.org/T/#u> Cc: GCC <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> Cc: glibc <libc-al...@sourceware.org> Cc: Bastien Roucariès <ro...@debian.org> Cc: Stefan Puiu <stefan.p...@gmail.com> Cc: Igor Sysoev <i...@sysoev.ru> Cc: Rich Felker <dal...@libc.org> Cc: Andrew Clayton <a.clay...@nginx.com> Cc: Richard Biener <richard.guent...@gmail.com> Cc: Zack Weinberg <z...@owlfolio.org> Cc: Florian Weimer <fwei...@redhat.com> Cc: Joseph Myers <jos...@codesourcery.com> Cc: Jakub Jelinek <ja...@redhat.com> Cc: Eric Blake <ebl...@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Alejandro Colomar <a...@kernel.org> --- man3type/sockaddr.3type | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+) diff --git a/man3type/sockaddr.3type b/man3type/sockaddr.3type index 319a5e552..239e836fc 100644 --- a/man3type/sockaddr.3type +++ b/man3type/sockaddr.3type @@ -120,6 +120,26 @@ .SH NOTES .I <netinet/in.h> and .IR <sys/un.h> . +.SH BUGS +.I sockaddr_storage +was designed back when strict aliasing wasn't a problem. +Back then, +one would define a variable of that type, +and then access it as any of the other +.IR sockaddr_ * +types, +depending on the value of the first member. +This is Undefined Behavior. +However, there is no way to use these APIs without invoking Unedfined Behavior, +either in the user program or in libc, +so it is still recommended to use this method. +The only correct way to use different types in an API is through a union. +However, +that union must be implemented in the library, +since the type must be shared between the library and user code, +so libc should be fixed by implementing +.I sockaddr_storage +as a union. .SH SEE ALSO .BR accept (2), .BR bind (2), -- 2.39.1