Bug#534289: ifconfig: use strtol() instead of atol() to catch errors

[Victor Stinner]

Package: net-tools
Version: 1.60-23
Severity: minor

I tried to configure my ethernet controler (eth0) to setup static IPv6
addresses. I used "netmask ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::", but ifup uses:

   ifconfig eth0 add 2a01:e35:8a04:25b0:216:76ff:feab:79ed/ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::

which is incorrect: ifconfig doesn't support a mask as a IPv6 netmask.
The result is that my interface has the address (network):

   2a01:e35:8a04:25b0:216:76ff:feab:79ed/0.

The right syntax is "netmask 64" which uses:

   ifconfig eth0 add 2a01:e35:8a04:25b0:216:76ff:feab:79ed/64

My problem is that ifconfig doesn't report the invalid syntax error.


There are differents ways to fix this issue:

 * ifconfig should use strtol() instead to atol() to catch conversion
   errors. ifconfig already uses strtoll() for other parameters!
 * ifup could check for invalid syntax in the interfaces file
 * ifup should use "ip" program instead of the old buggy "ifconfig"
   program

But I prefer the first solution because most people still use ifconfig
program.

I tried to write a patch, but I realized that net-tools doesn't compile
without Debian patches!? Then I tried to find the homepage (which is
very hard, Debian bug #530712 -Please add Homepage field to control- is
still open), which is http://net-tools.berlios.de/. And the website told
me that the bugtracker is the Debian bug tracker. So here I am.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.29-2-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages net-tools depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.9-13     GNU C Library: Shared libraries

net-tools recommends no packages.

net-tools suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information