Weird gethostbyname() issue

Xterria · 03-26-2006, 09:40 PM

Hey, I was just wondering why when gethostbyname()'s return value is assigned to a LPHOSTENT structure, using gethostbyname() one more time reassigns that original variable, regardless of whether or not you told it to?

For example,

Code:

LPHOSTENT lphost = NULL;
LPHOSTENT lphost2 = NULL;

//assign lphost to the IP at www.microsoft.com
lphost = gethostbyname("www.microsoft.com");

//assign a different var, lphost2, to www.cnn.com
lphost2 = gethostbyname("www.cnn.com");

//Assign to the address of lphost...
client.sin_addr = *((LPIN_ADDR)*lphost->h_addr_list);

One would think that client.sin_addr would point to the IP of microsoft.com. It doesn't. It points to cnn.com....which makes absolutely no sense at all. I've tested this several times and it's always the same. WHY? I'm using MSVC++ 6.

Thanks

JaWiB · 03-26-2006, 09:44 PM

Probably because it returns a pointer to a HOSTENT stucture. On msdn it says:

Quote:

The application must never attempt to modify this structure or to free any of its components. Furthermore, only one copy of this structure is allocated per thread, so the application should copy any information it needs before issuing any other Windows Sockets function calls.

It also says:

Quote:

The gethostbyname function has been deprecated by the introduction of the getaddrinfo function. Developers creating Windows Sockets 2 applications are urged to use the getaddrinfo function instead of gethostbyname

03-26-2006, 09:40 PM	#1
Xterria Intranasal Heroin User Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 1,033	Weird gethostbyname() issue Hey, I was just wondering why when gethostbyname()'s return value is assigned to a LPHOSTENT structure, using gethostbyname() one more time reassigns that original variable, regardless of whether or not you told it to? For example, Code: LPHOSTENT lphost = NULL; LPHOSTENT lphost2 = NULL; //assign lphost to the IP at www.microsoft.com lphost = gethostbyname("www.microsoft.com"); //assign a different var, lphost2, to www.cnn.com lphost2 = gethostbyname("www.cnn.com"); //Assign to the address of lphost... client.sin_addr = ((LPIN_ADDR)lphost->h_addr_list); One would think that client.sin_addr would point to the IP of microsoft.com. It doesn't. It points to cnn.com....which makes absolutely no sense at all. I've tested this several times and it's always the same. WHY? I'm using MSVC++ 6. Thanks
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