On Mon, Nov 12, 2007 at 11:12:48PM -0800, Tom Spindler wrote:
> > I took a look at the nmap source and it is using SIOCGIFCONF
> > incorrectly.  The following should help, but I'm running an old kernel
> > on my notebook and can't test it.
> 
> At this point, isn't there far more software using SIOCGIFCONF
> "incorrectly" than correctly? And if this is the case, shouldn't
> the program for which the behavior was "fixed" (racoon, IIRC) be
> modified instead?

No, and no (though given the form of the conditional, I suppose perhaps
"yes" is just as good an answer).  The original change to the ioctl was
to fix an overrun/truncation problem.  It turned out that some broken
programs relied on the buggy behavior, but many do not, and in any
case we cannot put it back how it was.  Greg has analyzed this in more
detail than anyone could reasonably expect; have you read his other
messages on the subject?

-- 
  Thor Lancelot Simon	                                     tls@rek.tjls.com

  "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to
   be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem."	      - Noam Chomsky