[macOS] error: field has incomplete type 'struct sockaddr'

[ryandesign]

Summary

• OS: OS X 10.8.5
• Architecture: any
• Psutil version: 5.9.8 plus patches to fix [macOS] v. 5.9.7 broken on macOS < 10.13: if_dl.h: error: unknown type name 'u_char'; did you mean 'char'? #2360 and [macOS] error: unknown type name 'CFTimeInterval' #2362
• Python version: any
• Type: installation

Description

Build failure on old versions of macOS (prior to 10.9):

In file included from psutil/arch/osx/net.c:12:
/usr/include/net/if.h:306:19: error: field has incomplete type 'struct sockaddr'
                struct  sockaddr ifru_addr;
                                 ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:306:10: note: forward declaration of 'struct sockaddr'
                struct  sockaddr ifru_addr;
                        ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:307:19: error: field has incomplete type 'struct sockaddr'
                struct  sockaddr ifru_dstaddr;
                                 ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:306:10: note: forward declaration of 'struct sockaddr'
                struct  sockaddr ifru_addr;
                        ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:308:19: error: field has incomplete type 'struct sockaddr'
                struct  sockaddr ifru_broadaddr;
                                 ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:306:10: note: forward declaration of 'struct sockaddr'
                struct  sockaddr ifru_addr;
                        ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:352:18: error: field has incomplete type 'struct sockaddr'
        struct  sockaddr ifra_addr;
                         ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:306:10: note: forward declaration of 'struct sockaddr'
                struct  sockaddr ifru_addr;
                        ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:353:18: error: field has incomplete type 'struct sockaddr'
        struct  sockaddr ifra_broadaddr;
                         ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:306:10: note: forward declaration of 'struct sockaddr'
                struct  sockaddr ifru_addr;
                        ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:354:18: error: field has incomplete type 'struct sockaddr'
        struct  sockaddr ifra_mask;
                         ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:306:10: note: forward declaration of 'struct sockaddr'
                struct  sockaddr ifru_addr;
                        ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:437:26: error: field has incomplete type 'struct sockaddr_storage'
        struct sockaddr_storage addr;   /* in/out */
                                ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:437:9: note: forward declaration of 'struct sockaddr_storage'
        struct sockaddr_storage addr;   /* in/out */
               ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:438:26: error: field has incomplete type 'struct sockaddr_storage'
        struct sockaddr_storage dstaddr; /* out */
                                ^
/usr/include/net/if.h:437:9: note: forward declaration of 'struct sockaddr_storage'
        struct sockaddr_storage addr;   /* in/out */
               ^
8 errors generated.

This is a common problem, caused by <net/if.h> on OS X versions earlier than 10.9 not including <sys/socket.h>. The solution is to include <sys/socket.h> yourself before including <net/if.h>. (So much for my recommendation to include headers in alphabetical order!) I'll send a PR.