[stunnel-users] [PATCH] Fix undefined aliasing in libwrap.c

Sat May 2 23:10:49 CEST 2009

Ludolf Holzheid wrote:
> In fact, accessing objects at addresses not suitable aligned leads to
> strange effects on some machines (e.g. ARM9 or C165), but this fact is
> not even mentioned in IEC9899:1999 (a.k.a. C99).

You're right.  memcpy() is a safe way to assure proper alignment.

> Even worse C99 _defines_ void* to "have the same representation and
> alignment requirements as a pointer to a character type", which is not
> suitable the vast majority of the objects one could have pointers
> for. A nightmare for static code checkers ...

The whole idea of C is a nightmare for static code analyzers...  C is  
basically a structured, cpu-independent assembler.  A programmer  
writing C code can easily see how it's going to be translated for a  
specific CPU.  Nothing is added automatically by the compiler.  This  
is why I'm such a big fan of C.  8-)

Best regards,
	Mike