With the update to GCC 10 the compiler used to warn when using the internet
checksum functions on packet classes (like in
Net::Ipv4_packet::update_checksum):
warning: converting a packed ‘Net::[PACKET_CLASS]’ pointer
(alignment 1) to a ‘const uint16_t’ {aka ‘const short
unsigned int’} pointer (alignment 2) may result in an
unaligned pointer value
Apparently, the 'packed' attribute normally used on packet classes sets the
alignment of the packet class to 1. However, for the purpose of the
internet-checksum functions, we can assume that the packet data has no
alignment. This is expressed by casting the packet-object pointer to a pointer
of the new packed helper struct 'Packed_uint16' that contains only a single
uint16_t member before handing it over to the checksum function (instead of
casting it to a uint16_t pointer).
Ref #4109
This reduces the redundant implementations of checksum calculation to
one generic implementation, makes the checksum interface conform over
all protocols, and brings performance optimizations. For instance,
the checksum is now calculated directly in big endian which saves us
most of the previously done byte-re-ordering.
Issue #2775