Forcing telnet to use IPv6

[Chris Adams]

Once upon a time, Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com> said:
> Many howtos I find for Telnet and IPv6 say to use the '-6' option.
> Well no such option exists in the Fedora telnet client.
> 
> I know if the host is ONLY accessable via v6, Telnet will use v6.
> But how do I force the client when the server is listening on both
> stacks?

Are you using the "telnet" command to connect to Telnet servers, or just
to arbitrary ports?  If you are just using it for arbitrary ports (such
as SMTP or IMAP testing for example), you could use "nc" instead.  It
does have "-4" and "-6" options.  It has some other differences, which
may mean it won't work for you; just offering it as a possibility.

As for the "telnet" command: it looks like Fedora is using an ancient
version of telnet, probably forked from OpenBSD in the distant past.
There's a bug for this already:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1069809

The best solution may be for somebody to try to merge in a current
telnet release from somewhere (whether OpenBSD's or somebody else's).

-- 
Chris Adams <linux at cmadams.net>