https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=67198
--- Comment #5 from Ian Lance Taylor <ian at airs dot com> --- I am indeed saying that no code is ever going to do a less-than or greater-than comparison with the bytes in an IP address. Not that that has much to do with what we should do here. I'm just saying that the possibility of code that behaves incorrectly because these bytes are signed or unsigned is not an issue. It won't happen and we should not worry about it. What matters is whether programs compile or not.