xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/net/ethers.3 (revision 94942af266ac119ede0ca836f9aa5a5ac0582938)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 2007 Robert N. M. Watson
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32.\" $FreeBSD$
33.\"
34.Dd May 13, 2007
35.Dt ETHERS 3
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm ethers ,
39.Nm ether_line ,
40.Nm ether_aton ,
41.Nm ether_aton_r ,
42.Nm ether_ntoa ,
43.Nm ether_ntoa_r ,
44.Nm ether_ntohost ,
45.Nm ether_hostton
46.Nd Ethernet address conversion and lookup routines
47.Sh LIBRARY
48.Lb libc
49.Sh SYNOPSIS
50.In sys/types.h
51.In sys/socket.h
52.In net/ethernet.h
53.Ft int
54.Fn ether_line "const char *l" "struct ether_addr *e" "char *hostname"
55.Ft struct ether_addr *
56.Fn ether_aton "const char *a"
57.Ft struct ether_addr *
58.Fn ether_aton_r "const char *a" "struct ether_addr *e"
59.Ft char *
60.Fn ether_ntoa "const struct ether_addr *n"
61.Ft char *
62.Fn ether_ntoa_r "const struct ether_addr *n" "char *buf"
63.Ft int
64.Fn ether_ntohost "char *hostname" "const struct ether_addr *e"
65.Ft int
66.Fn ether_hostton "const char *hostname" "struct ether_addr *e"
67.Sh DESCRIPTION
68These functions operate on ethernet addresses using an
69.Vt ether_addr
70structure, which is defined in the header file
71.In netinet/if_ether.h :
72.Bd -literal -offset indent
73/*
74 * The number of bytes in an ethernet (MAC) address.
75 */
76#define ETHER_ADDR_LEN		6
77
78/*
79 * Structure of a 48-bit Ethernet address.
80 */
81struct  ether_addr {
82        u_char octet[ETHER_ADDR_LEN];
83};
84.Ed
85.Pp
86The function
87.Fn ether_line
88scans
89.Fa l ,
90an
91.Tn ASCII
92string in
93.Xr ethers 5
94format and sets
95.Fa e
96to the ethernet address specified in the string and
97.Fa h
98to the hostname.
99This function is used to parse lines from
100.Pa /etc/ethers
101into their component parts.
102.Pp
103The
104.Fn ether_aton
105and
106.Fn ether_aton_r
107functions convert
108.Tn ASCII
109representation of ethernet addresses into
110.Vt ether_addr
111structures.
112Likewise, the
113.Fn ether_ntoa
114and
115.Fn ether_ntoa_r
116functions
117convert ethernet addresses specified as
118.Vt ether_addr
119structures into
120.Tn ASCII
121strings.
122.Pp
123The
124.Fn ether_ntohost
125and
126.Fn ether_hostton
127functions map ethernet addresses to their corresponding hostnames
128as specified in the
129.Pa /etc/ethers
130database.
131The
132.Fn ether_ntohost
133function
134converts from ethernet address to hostname, and
135.Fn ether_hostton
136converts from hostname to ethernet address.
137.Sh RETURN VALUES
138The
139.Fn ether_line
140function
141returns zero on success and non-zero if it was unable to parse
142any part of the supplied line
143.Fa l .
144It returns the extracted ethernet address in the supplied
145.Vt ether_addr
146structure
147.Fa e
148and the hostname in the supplied string
149.Fa h .
150.Pp
151On success,
152.Fn ether_ntoa
153and
154.Fn ether_ntoa_r
155functions return a pointer to a string containing an
156.Tn ASCII
157representation of an ethernet address.
158If it is unable to convert
159the supplied
160.Vt ether_addr
161structure, it returns a
162.Dv NULL
163pointer.
164.Fn ether_ntoa
165stores the result in a static buffer;
166.Fn ether_ntoa_r
167stores the result in a user-passed buffer.
168.Pp
169
170Likewise,
171.Fn ether_aton
172and
173.Fn ether_aton_r
174return a pointer to an
175.Vt ether_addr
176structure on success and a
177.Dv NULL
178pointer on failure.
179.Fn ether_aton
180stores the result in a static buffer;
181.Fn ether_aton_r
182stores the result in a user-passed buffer.
183.Pp
184The
185.Fn ether_ntohost
186and
187.Fn ether_hostton
188functions both return zero on success or non-zero if they were
189unable to find a match in the
190.Pa /etc/ethers
191database.
192.Sh NOTES
193The user must insure that the hostname strings passed to the
194.Fn ether_line ,
195.Fn ether_ntohost
196and
197.Fn ether_hostton
198functions are large enough to contain the returned hostnames.
199.Sh NIS INTERACTION
200If the
201.Pa /etc/ethers
202contains a line with a single + in it, the
203.Fn ether_ntohost
204and
205.Fn ether_hostton
206functions will attempt to consult the NIS
207.Pa ethers.byname
208and
209.Pa ethers.byaddr
210maps in addition to the data in the
211.Pa /etc/ethers
212file.
213.Sh SEE ALSO
214.Xr ethers 5 ,
215.Xr yp 8
216.Sh HISTORY
217This particular implementation of the
218.Nm
219library functions were written for and first appeared in
220.Fx 2.1 .
221Thread-safe function variants first appeared in
222.Fx 7.0 .
223.Sh BUGS
224The
225.Fn ether_aton
226and
227.Fn ether_ntoa
228functions returns values that are stored in static memory areas
229which may be overwritten the next time they are called.
230.Pp
231.Fn ether_ntoa_r
232accepts a character buffer pointer, but not a buffer length.
233The caller must ensure adequate space is available in the buffer in order to
234avoid a buffer overflow.
235