hostip.c explained ================== The main COMPILE-TIME DEFINES to keep in mind when reading the host*.c source file are these: CURLRES_IPV6 - this host has getaddrinfo() and family, and thus we use that. The host may not be able to resolve IPv6, but we don't really have to take that into account. Hosts that aren't IPv6-enabled have CURLRES_IPV4 defined. CURLRES_ARES - is defined if libcurl is built to use c-ares for asynchronous name resolves. It cannot have ENABLE_IPV6 defined at the same time, as c-ares has no ipv6 support. This can be Windows or *nix. CURLRES_THREADED - is defined if libcurl is built to run under (native) Windows, and then the name resolve will be done in a new thread, and the supported asynch API will be the same as for ares-builds. If any of the two previous are defined, CURLRES_ASYNCH is defined too. If libcurl is not built to use an asynchronous resolver, CURLRES_SYNCH is defined. The host*.c sources files are split up like this: hostip.c - method-independent resolver functions and utility functions hostasyn.c - functions for asynchronous name resolves hostsyn.c - functions for synchronous name resolves hostares.c - functions for ares-using name resolves hostthre.c - functions for threaded name resolves hostip4.c - ipv4-specific functions hostip6.c - ipv6-specific functions The hostip.h is the single united header file for all this. It defines the CURLRES_* defines based on the config*.h and setup.h defines.