Há uma postagem sobre estouro de pilha há cerca de um ano perguntando algo semelhante ( este post ).
A principal razão é como inet_aton()
( página de manual ) converte os octetos no endereço binário. / p>
a.b.c.d
Each of the four numeric parts specifies a byte of the address; the bytes are assigned in left-to-right order to produce the binary address.
a.b.c
Parts a and b specify the first two bytes of the binary address. Part c is interpreted as a 16-bit value that defines the rightmost two bytes of the binary address. This notation is suitable for specifying (outmoded) Class B network addresses.
a.b
Part a specifies the first byte of the binary address. Part b is interpreted as a 24-bit value that defines the rightmost three bytes of the binary address. This notation is suitable for specifying (outmoded) Class C network addresses.
a
The value a is interpreted as a 32-bit value that is stored directly into the binary address without any byte rearrangement.
Isso não é definido por POSIX.anything - mas está amplamente disponível.