`ares_channel` is defined as `typedef struct ares_channeldata *ares_channel;`. The problem with this, is it embeds the pointer into the typedef, which means an `ares_channel` can never be declared as `const` as if you write `const ares_channel channel`, that expands to `struct ares_channeldata * const ares_channel` and not `const struct ares_channeldata *channel`.
We will now typedef `ares_channel_t` as `typedef struct ares_channeldata ares_channel_t;`, so if you write `const ares_channel_t *channel`, it properly expands to `const struct ares_channeldata *channel`.
We are maintaining the old typedef for API compatibility with existing integrations, and due to typedef expansion this should not even cause any compiler warnings for existing code. There are no ABI implications with this change. I could be convinced to keep existing public functions as `ares_channel` if a sufficient argument exists, but internally we really need make this change for modern best practices.
This change will allow us to internally use `const ares_channel_t *` where appropriate. Whether or not we decide to change any public interfaces to use `const` may require further discussion on if there might be ABI implications (I don't think so, but I'm also not 100% sure what a compiler internally does with `const` when emitting machine code ... I think more likely ABI implications would occur going the opposite direction).
FYI, This PR was done via a combination of sed and clang-format, the only manual code change was the addition of the new typedef, and a couple doc fixes :)
Fix By: Brad House (@bradh352)
Brad House
d2389cd3b7