Why does socket fail under gdb?

Question

All of a sudden socket crashes under gdb (but works fine normally). This only happens when I DO initialize winsock. ANY help is much appreciated.

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <locale.h>

#include <winsock2.h>
#include <Iphlpapi.h>
#ifdef _MSC_VER
    #pragma comment(lib, "ws2_32.lib")
    #pragma comment(lib, "IPHLPAPI.lib")
#endif
#include <windows.h>

unsigned char Network_isInitialized_ = 0;

#define SYSTEMINFORMATION_ISNATIVEWINDOWS 1

unsigned char Network_init_(){
#if SYSTEMINFORMATION_ISNATIVEWINDOWS
    if (Network_isInitialized_){
        return Network_isInitialized_;
    }
    WSADATA wsadata;
    int error = WSAStartup(0x0202, &wsadata);
    Network_isInitialized_ = error == 0 ? 1 : 0;
    return Network_isInitialized_;
#else
    return 1;
#endif
}

void Network_shutdown_(){
#if SYSTEMINFORMATION_ISNATIVEWINDOWS
    if (Network_isInitialized_){
        WSACleanup(); //Clean up Winsock
    }
    Network_isInitialized_ = 0;
#else
    //Unix doesnt need to do anything
#endif
}


typedef struct TCP_Connection_s {
    char *name;
    int port;
    unsigned int ip;

    struct sockaddr_in *connection;
    void *ptr;
    unsigned int socket;
} TCP_Connection;

TCP_Connection* TCP_Connection_malloc(){
    TCP_Connection *connection = (TCP_Connection*)malloc(sizeof(TCP_Connection));
    memset(connection, 0, sizeof(*connection));
    connection->connection = (struct sockaddr_in*) malloc (sizeof(struct sockaddr_in));
    memset(connection->connection, 0, sizeof(*connection->connection));
    return connection;
}

TCP_Connection* myconnect(TCP_Connection *connection){
    if (connection == NULL){
        return NULL;
    }
    connection->socket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
    if (connection->socket+1 == 0){
        return NULL;
    }
    int ret = connect(connection->socket, (struct sockaddr *)connection->connection, sizeof(*connection->connection));
    if (ret != 0){
        return NULL;
    }
    return connection;
}

TCP_Connection* connectToHost(TCP_Connection *connection, char *address, int port){
    if (address == NULL){
        return NULL;
    }

    if (connection == NULL){
        connection = TCP_Connection_malloc();
    }

    struct hostent *he = (struct hostent *) gethostbyname(address);
    int retryCount = 5;
    while (he == NULL && retryCount > 0){
        he = (struct hostent *) gethostbyname(address);
        Sleep(2000);
        retryCount = retryCount - 1;
    }
    if (he == NULL){
        return NULL;
    }
    struct sockaddr_in temp;
    memcpy(&(temp.sin_addr), he->h_addr, he->h_length);

    connection->connection->sin_family = AF_INET;
    connection->connection->sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY;
    connection->connection->sin_port = htons(port);
    connection->port = port;

    memcpy(&(connection->connection->sin_addr), he->h_addr, he->h_length);
    return myconnect(connection);
}


int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
    //Random_seedCryptographic();
    Network_init_();
    connectToHost(NULL, "localhost", 1337);
    Network_shutdown_();
    printf("Press any key to continue...");
    fflush(0);
    getchar();
    return 0;
}

$ gdb test.exe
GNU gdb (GDB) 7.3.50.20111026-cvs (cygwin-special)
Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later 
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i686-cygwin".
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
...
Reading symbols from /cygdrive/c/test.exe...done.
(gdb) run
Starting program: /cygdrive/c/test.exe
[New Thread 201280.0x60b68]
dll path too long
[New Thread 201280.0x304b0]
warning: Could not load shared library symbols for //./globalroot/systemroot/syswow64/mswsock.dll.
Do you need "set solib-search-path" or "set sysroot"?

Program received signal SIGTRAP, Trace/breakpoint trap.
0x3567125a in ?? () from /cygdrive/c/Windows/syswow64/mswsock.dll
(gdb) bt
#0  0x3567125a in ?? () from /cygdrive/c/Windows/syswow64/mswsock.dll
#1  0x753b8b9d in inet_ntoa () from /cygdrive/c/Windows/syswow64/WS2_32.dll
#2  0x753b8972 in inet_ntoa () from /cygdrive/c/Windows/syswow64/WS2_32.dll
#3  0x753b89da in inet_ntoa () from /cygdrive/c/Windows/syswow64/WS2_32.dll
#4  0x753b3d70 in WSCInstallProvider ()
   from /cygdrive/c/Windows/syswow64/WS2_32.dll
#5  0x00000002 in ?? ()
#6  0x00000001 in ?? ()
#7  0x00000000 in ?? ()
(gdb)

Updates: I tried compiling the same file on a different system under mingw portable and that worked. I then tried installing mingw on my system and uninstalled cygwin...still doesnt work XD

Answer 1

That's because Cygwin tries to emulate a UNIX environment, and you don't need to call WSAStartup() on UNIX. Cygwin does this automatically under the hood, so you're duplicating the initialization / cleanup of Winsock. See this , for example.