xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/net/linkaddr.3 (revision 17ee9d00bc1ae1e598c38f25826f861e4bc6c3ce)
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35.\"     @(#)linkaddr.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 7/28/93
36.\"
37.Dd July 28, 1993
38.Dt LINK_ADDR 3
39.Os BSD 4.4
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm link_addr ,
42.Nm link_ntoa
43.Nd elementary address specification routines for link level access
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Fd #include <sys/types.h>
46.Fd #include <sys/socket.h>
47.Fd #include <net/if_dl.h>
48.Ft void
49.Fn link_addr "const char *addr" "struct sockaddr_dl *sdl"
50.Ft char *
51.Fn link_ntoa "const struct sockaddr_dl *sdl"
52.Sh DESCRIPTION
53The routine
54.Fn link_addr
55interprets character strings representing
56link-level addresses, returning binary information suitable
57for use in system calls.
58The routine
59.Fn link_ntoa
60takes
61a link-level
62address and returns an
63.Tn ASCII
64string representing some of the information present,
65including the link level address itself, and the interface name
66or number, if present.
67This facility is experimental and is
68still subject to change.
69.Pp
70For
71.Fn link_addr ,
72the string
73.Fa addr
74may contain
75an optional network interface identifier of the form
76.Dq "name unit-number" ,
77suitable for the first argument to
78.Xr ifconfig 4 ,
79followed in all cases by a colon and
80an interface address in the form of
81groups of hexadecimal digits
82separated by periods.
83Each group represents a byte of address;
84address bytes are filled left to right from
85low order bytes through high order bytes.
86.Pp
87.\" A regular expression may make this format clearer:
88.\" .Bd -literal -offset indent
89.\" ([a-z]+[0-9]+:)?[0-9a-f]+(\e.[0-9a-f]+)*
90.\" .Ed
91.\" .Pp
92Thus
93.Li le0:8.0.9.13.d.30
94represents an ethernet address
95to be transmitted on the first Lance ethernet interface.
96.Sh RETURN VALUES
97.Fn link_ntoa
98always returns a null terminated string.
99.Fn link_addr
100has no return value.
101(See
102.Sx BUGS . )
103.Sh SEE ALSO
104.Xr iso 4 ,
105.Sh HISTORY
106The
107.Fn link_addr
108and
109.Fn link_ntoa
110functions appeared in
111.Bx 4.3 Reno  .
112.Sh BUGS
113The returned values for link_ntoa
114reside in a static memory area.
115.Pp
116The function
117.Fn link_addr
118should diagnose improperly formed input, and there should be an unambiguous
119way to recognize this.
120.Pp
121If the
122.Va sdl_len
123field of the link socket address
124.Fa sdl
125is 0,
126.Fn link_ntoa
127will not insert a colon before the interface address bytes.
128If this translated address is given to
129.Fn link_addr
130without inserting an initial colon,
131the latter will not interpret it correctly.
132