Bug 102209 – wget always prefers IPv4 by default

• Status: RESOLVED FIXED
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Simon Arlott 2005-08-12 02:16:39 UTC]

wget(1):
       --prefer-family=IPv4/IPv6/none
           When given a choice of several addresses, connect to the addresses
           with specified address family first.  IPv4 addresses are preferred
           by default.


Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. wget
http://ftp.belnet.be/mirror/rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo/distfiles/linux-2.6.12.tar.bz2


Actual Results:  
Resolving ftp.belnet.be... 193.190.198.20, 2001:6a8:3c80:0:203:baff:fe39:f931
Connecting to ftp.belnet.be|193.190.198.20|:80... connected.


Expected Results:  
Resolving ftp.belnet.be...
2001:6a8:3c80:0:203:baff:fe39:f931, 193.190.198.20
Connecting to ftp.belnet.be|2001:6a8:3c80:0:203:baff:fe39:f931|:80... connected.


When the USE flag 'ipv6' is enabled, the following line should be added to
/etc/wget/wgetrc:

prefer_family = IPv6

[Comment 1 Jakub Moc (RETIRED) 2005-08-12 02:22:34 UTC]

(In reply to comment #0)
> When the USE flag 'ipv6' is enabled, the following line should be added to
> /etc/wget/wgetrc:
> 
> prefer_family = IPv6

Uh, that would make quite a couple of people angry, ipv6 use flags is enabled
*by default* in most profiles while most people don't have IPv6 connectivity at
all. I  vote for WONTFIX unless ipv6 is removed from make.defaults.

[Comment 2 Simon Arlott 2005-08-12 02:37:36 UTC]

Preferring IPv6 does not break IPv4 connections, and this would only have an
effect for services available over IPv6 as well as IPv4.

Example with ::/0 default route via eth0 (I have no idea why the Linux kernel
does this on startup):
Resolving ftp.belnet.be... 2001:6a8:3c80:0:203:baff:fe39:f931, 193.190.198.20
Connecting to ftp.belnet.be|2001:6a8:3c80:0:203:baff:fe39:f931|:80... failed:
Cannot assign requested address.
Connecting to ftp.belnet.be|193.190.198.20|:80... connected.

Example with unreachable ::/0 route:
Resolving ftp.belnet.be... 2001:6a8:3c80:0:203:baff:fe39:f931, 193.190.198.20
Connecting to ftp.belnet.be|2001:6a8:3c80:0:203:baff:fe39:f931|:80... failed:
Network is unreachable.
Connecting to ftp.belnet.be|193.190.198.20|:80... connected.

[Comment 3 Jakub Moc (RETIRED) 2005-08-12 02:44:50 UTC]

(In reply to comment #2)

> Resolving ftp.belnet.be... 2001:6a8:3c80:0:203:baff:fe39:f931, 193.190.198.20
> Connecting to ftp.belnet.be|2001:6a8:3c80:0:203:baff:fe39:f931|:80... failed:
> Network is unreachable.
> Connecting to ftp.belnet.be|193.190.198.20|:80... connected.

Yes, that's what I'm talking about, resolving IPv6 address on IPv4 connection
would make people confused and angry. IPv6 users can easily set that themselves,
but this is IMHO a really bad default for all users (again, ipv6 is default use
flag in Gentoo).

[Comment 4 Simon Arlott 2005-08-12 03:07:35 UTC]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Yes, that's what I'm talking about, resolving IPv6 address on IPv4 connection
> would make people confused and angry. IPv6 users can easily set that themselves,
> but this is IMHO a really bad default for all users (again, ipv6 is default use
> flag in Gentoo).

Maybe the ebuild needs to display a warning that people are easily confused and
that IPv6 support needs to be enabled manually despite the use flag already
being enabled?

[Comment 5 Radek Podgorny 2005-08-12 16:32:52 UTC]

Just remember, ipv6 can only be spread by being used... :-)

[Comment 6 Seemant Kulleen (RETIRED) 2005-09-12 14:32:35 UTC]

I added a comment in the wgetrc file about this.  Please remerge to see.