I am requesting that when IPv6 is not compiled in, the call still
succeed, returning a socket which only handles sin6_addr's in the
"IPv4-mapped IPv6 address" format defined in section 2.4.4 of RFC 1884.
(It should also accept as input the Unspecified Address and the Loopback
Address.)
The IPv6 API has a wonderful facility, the "IPv4-mapped IPv6 address,"
which allows IPv4 to be accessed through the IPv6 API. I would like to
port code to IPv6 by writing it entirely to the IPv6 interface. On OS's
which don't support the IPv6 API, I would provide my own compatibility
layer which maps the IPv6 API to the IPv4 API.
I don't want to have to write and maintain a mess of run-time
conditionals which try to figure out which API needs to be called at any
given time. I also consider it impractical to require customers to
rebuild their kernels with IPv6 enabled, just to be able to run our
products.
You're not going to get a lot of developer interest in porting to IPv6
if you don't give them an interface they can rely on being there.
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