This is what's new and changed in the c-ares 1.6.1 release: Changed: o in6_addr is not used in ares.h anymore, but a private ares_in6_addr is instead declared and used p ares_gethostbyname() now supports 'AF_UNSPEC' as a family for resolving either AF_INET6 or AF_INET Fixed: o ares_parse_*_reply() functions now return ARES_EBADRESP instead of ARES_EBADNAME if the name in the response failed to decode Thanks go to these friendly people for their efforts and contributions: Phil Blundell, Japheth Cleaver Have fun!