🚀 go-pugleaf

This is not a serious problem, more like a suggestion for a useful
feature.

	PROBLEM

   `open-network-stream' in Emacs does not recognize addresses in the
number.number.number.number format (i.e. 130.233.40.32).

   I think this address format should work, otherwise there will be
problems when your /etc/hosts or nameserver is not in very good
working order.

	``DISCUSSION''

   This functionality *should* be in the library routine
gethostbyname(), but for those without source changing that is hard,
and the easiest way for *now* would be to patch the applications.

   I think this change would be beneficial for some Emacs users
especially under strange/panic conditions, and not changing any
previous practises.

   There is a library function (in BSD at least), gethostbyaddr()
which is unfortunately quite badly documented. With it it is very easy
to add this functionality to Emacs. I have enclosed a sample
quick-hack, something like that should work.

   Another good idea might be to try all the addresses, if the
gethostby*() returns a list of addresses, usually some of those
addresses works even if the first does not work. Of course this works
only in newer BSD-like systems.

   I encountered these problems when I was trying to read local news
with GNUS and NNTP from another organization; Our nameservers randomly
either did not know or returned multiple addresses for the host.

	OTHER INFORMATION

   M-x emacs-version: GNU Emacs 18.55.7 of Tue Jul 3 1990 on
joker.hut.fi (berkeley-unix).

	MY QUICK HACK

   This is how I quickly hacked around this problem (i.e. it is a
kludge). The code below should work on most machines with BSD
libraries and 32 bit ints&longs etc. You can see here what kind of
arguments gethostbyaddr() wants, if not more.

In ~emacs/src/process.c:

---begin-of-kludge------begin-of-kludge------begin-of-kludge---
  ...
  host_info = gethostbyname (XSTRING (host)->data);
/* ------------- following code inserted/changed ------------- */
  if (host_info == 0) {
                                /* Try n.n.n.n format when by-name fails */
#if defined(BSD)                /* Does not work properly on others, */
                                /* I suppose */
       unsigned char addr[4];
       unsigned long temp;
       temp = inet_addr(XSTRING (host)->data);
       addr[0] = (temp & 0xFF000000) >>24; /* The arg for gethostbyaddr */
       addr[1] = (temp & 0x00FF0000) >>16; /* is not documented too well. */
       addr[2] = (temp & 0x0000FF00) >>8;  /* This seems to work. */
       addr[3] = (temp & 0x000000FF);
       host_info = gethostbyaddr((char *)&addr, sizeof(addr), AF_INET);
       if (host_info == 0)
#endif defined(BSD)
            error ("Unknown host \"%s\"", XSTRING(host)->data);
  }
/* ------------ end of inserted/changed code ------------- */
  bzero (&address, sizeof address);
  ...
---end-of-kludge------end-of-kludge------end-of-kludge---

Thank you for reading this message. I hope it helps you to create a
better Emacs for everyone to enjoy!

rgds//haa
--
Hannu Aronsson <haa@cs.hut.fi>
Dept. of Computer Science, CS lab,
Helsinki University of Technology, Finland