xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/net/inet.3 (revision 8ab2f5ecc596131f6ca790d6ae35540c06ed7985)
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32.\"     From: @(#)inet.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
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34.\"
35.Dd June 14, 2004
36.Dt INET 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm inet_aton ,
40.Nm inet_addr ,
41.Nm inet_network ,
42.Nm inet_ntoa ,
43.Nm inet_ntop ,
44.Nm inet_pton ,
45.Nm inet_makeaddr ,
46.Nm inet_lnaof ,
47.Nm inet_netof
48.Nd Internet address manipulation routines
49.Sh LIBRARY
50.Lb libc
51.Sh SYNOPSIS
52.In sys/types.h
53.In sys/socket.h
54.In netinet/in.h
55.In arpa/inet.h
56.Ft int
57.Fn inet_aton "const char *cp" "struct in_addr *pin"
58.Ft in_addr_t
59.Fn inet_addr "const char *cp"
60.Ft in_addr_t
61.Fn inet_network "const char *cp"
62.Ft char *
63.Fn inet_ntoa "struct in_addr in"
64.Ft const char *
65.Fo inet_ntop
66.Fa "int af"
67.Fa "const void * restrict src"
68.Fa "char * restrict dst"
69.Fa "socklen_t size"
70.Fc
71.Ft int
72.Fn inet_pton "int af" "const char * restrict src" "void * restrict dst"
73.Ft struct in_addr
74.Fn inet_makeaddr "in_addr_t net" "in_addr_t lna"
75.Ft in_addr_t
76.Fn inet_lnaof "struct in_addr in"
77.Ft in_addr_t
78.Fn inet_netof "struct in_addr in"
79.Sh DESCRIPTION
80The routines
81.Fn inet_aton ,
82.Fn inet_addr
83and
84.Fn inet_network
85interpret character strings representing
86numbers expressed in the Internet standard
87.Ql .\&
88notation.
89.Pp
90The
91.Fn inet_pton
92function converts a presentation format address (that is, printable form
93as held in a character string) to network format (usually a
94.Ft struct in_addr
95or some other internal binary representation, in network byte order).
96It returns 1 if the address was valid for the specified address family, or
970 if the address wasn't parseable in the specified address family, or -1
98if some system error occurred (in which case
99.Va errno
100will have been set).
101This function is presently valid for
102.Dv AF_INET
103and
104.Dv AF_INET6 .
105.Pp
106The
107.Fn inet_aton
108routine interprets the specified character string as an Internet address,
109placing the address into the structure provided.
110It returns 1 if the string was successfully interpreted,
111or 0 if the string is invalid.
112The
113.Fn inet_addr
114and
115.Fn inet_network
116functions return numbers suitable for use
117as Internet addresses and Internet network
118numbers, respectively.
119.Pp
120The function
121.Fn inet_ntop
122converts an address
123.Fa *src
124from network format
125(usually a
126.Ft struct in_addr
127or some other binary form, in network byte order) to presentation format
128(suitable for external display purposes).
129The
130.Fa size
131argument specifies the size, in bytes, of the buffer
132.Fa *dst .
133It returns NULL if a system error occurs (in which case,
134.Va errno
135will have been set), or it returns a pointer to the destination string.
136This function is presently valid for
137.Dv AF_INET
138and
139.Dv AF_INET6 .
140.Pp
141The routine
142.Fn inet_ntoa
143takes an Internet address and returns an
144.Tn ASCII
145string representing the address in
146.Ql .\&
147notation.
148The routine
149.Fn inet_makeaddr
150takes an Internet network number and a local
151network address and constructs an Internet address
152from it.
153The routines
154.Fn inet_netof
155and
156.Fn inet_lnaof
157break apart Internet host addresses, returning
158the network number and local network address part,
159respectively.
160.Pp
161All Internet addresses are returned in network
162order (bytes ordered from left to right).
163All network numbers and local address parts are
164returned as machine byte order integer values.
165.Sh INTERNET ADDRESSES
166Values specified using the
167.Ql .\&
168notation take one
169of the following forms:
170.Bd -literal -offset indent
171a.b.c.d
172a.b.c
173a.b
174a
175.Ed
176.Pp
177When four parts are specified, each is interpreted
178as a byte of data and assigned, from left to right,
179to the four bytes of an Internet address.
180Note
181that when an Internet address is viewed as a 32-bit
182integer quantity on the
183.Tn VAX
184the bytes referred to
185above appear as
186.Dq Li d.c.b.a .
187That is,
188.Tn VAX
189bytes are
190ordered from right to left.
191.Pp
192When a three part address is specified, the last
193part is interpreted as a 16-bit quantity and placed
194in the right-most two bytes of the network address.
195This makes the three part address format convenient
196for specifying Class B network addresses as
197.Dq Li 128.net.host .
198.Pp
199When a two part address is supplied, the last part
200is interpreted as a 24-bit quantity and placed in
201the right most three bytes of the network address.
202This makes the two part address format convenient
203for specifying Class A network addresses as
204.Dq Li net.host .
205.Pp
206When only one part is given, the value is stored
207directly in the network address without any byte
208rearrangement.
209.Pp
210All numbers supplied as
211.Dq parts
212in a
213.Ql .\&
214notation
215may be decimal, octal, or hexadecimal, as specified
216in the C language (i.e., a leading 0x or 0X implies
217hexadecimal; otherwise, a leading 0 implies octal;
218otherwise, the number is interpreted as decimal).
219.Pp
220The
221.Fn inet_aton
222and
223.Fn inet_ntoa
224functions are semi-deprecated in favor of the
225.Xr addr2ascii 3
226family.
227However, since those functions are not yet widely implemented,
228portable programs cannot rely on their presence and will continue
229to use the
230.Xr inet 3
231functions for some time.
232.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
233The constant
234.Dv INADDR_NONE
235is returned by
236.Fn inet_addr
237and
238.Fn inet_network
239for malformed requests.
240.Sh ERRORS
241The
242.Fn inet_ntop
243call fails if:
244.Bl -tag -width Er
245.It Bq Er ENOSPC
246.Fa size
247was not large enough to store the presentation form of the address.
248.It Bq Er EAFNOSUPPORT
249.Fa *src
250was not an
251.Dv AF_INET
252or
253.Dv AF_INET6
254family address.
255.El
256.Sh SEE ALSO
257.Xr addr2ascii 3 ,
258.Xr byteorder 3 ,
259.Xr gethostbyname 3 ,
260.Xr getnetent 3 ,
261.Xr inet_net 3 ,
262.Xr hosts 5 ,
263.Xr networks 5
264.Rs
265.%R RFC
266.%N 2373
267.%D July 1998
268.%T "IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture"
269.Re
270.Sh STANDARDS
271The
272.Fn inet_ntop
273and
274.Fn inet_pton
275functions conform to
276.St -xns5.2 .
277Note that
278.Fn inet_pton
279does not accept 1-, 2-, or 3-part dotted addresses; all four parts
280must be specified and are interpreted only as decimal values.
281This is a narrower input set than that accepted by
282.Fn inet_aton .
283.Sh HISTORY
284These
285functions appeared in
286.Bx 4.2 .
287.Sh BUGS
288The value
289.Dv INADDR_NONE
290(0xffffffff) is a valid broadcast address, but
291.Fn inet_addr
292cannot return that value without indicating failure.
293The newer
294.Fn inet_aton
295function does not share this problem.
296The problem of host byte ordering versus network byte ordering is
297confusing.
298The string returned by
299.Fn inet_ntoa
300resides in a static memory area.
301.Pp
302Inet_addr should return a
303.Fa struct in_addr .
304