Re: Strange input/cast semantics for inet

On Thu, Jul 21, 2005 at 06:38:01PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Greg Stark <gsstark@mit.edu> writes:
> > The normal way to read "1.10" would be as synonymous with "1.0.0.10".
>
> That might be the case for IPv6, but it's never been a standard
> convention for IPv4; and even for IPv6 it doesn't make any sense
> for a network (as opposed to host) number.

I don't know if it's ever been blessed by a formal standard, but
that way of interpreting an IPv4 address is widely implemented in
inet_aton() and friends.  The 4.2BSD inet(3) manual page documents
that interpretation, and on most (all?) systems I've ever used,
"ping 127.1" is a shortcut for pinging the loopback address.

--
Michael Fuhr
http://www.fuhr.org/~mfuhr/