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TwIP - An IP Stack In a Tweet

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the small-is-good dept.

Adam Dunkels writes "Inspired by the Twitter-sized program that crashes Mac OS X, I just wrote a really, really rudimentary IP stack called twIP, small enough to fit in a Twitter tweet. Although twIP is very far away from a real IP stack, it can do the first task of any IP stack: respond to pings. The entire source code can be found in this 128-character-long tweet. For those who are interested in low-level network programming, a code walkthrough with instructions on how to run the code under FreeBSD is available here. The FAQ: Q: why? A: for fun."

1 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Addendum by Looce · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Haha! This article is rated purple (2 levels above the lowest -- black) already. Wow.

    Anyhow. The fact that the TwIP program requires an IP stack to work is the prime indication that it doesn't really do all that much. Since it can work with raw socket access, and switches the addresses around, well, props, but TFA's "header" code comment says this:

    updating the ICMP checksum

    which is then contradicted by the code comment before the address swap:

    Since we only swap bytes in the IP header, we do not need to update the IP header checksum.

    using ICMP and IP interchangeably..?

    timothy, take this down. Now. It's your only chance to save face with this article.