.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1990, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" From: @(#)inet.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/net/inet.3,v 1.8.2.8 2001/12/01 21:15:38 cjc Exp $ .\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/net/inet.3,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:26:44 dillon Exp $ .\" .Dd June 17, 1996 .Dt INET 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm inet_aton , .Nm inet_addr , .Nm inet_network , .Nm inet_ntoa , .Nm inet_ntop , .Nm inet_pton , .Nm inet_makeaddr , .Nm inet_lnaof , .Nm inet_netof .Nd Internet address manipulation routines .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In sys/types.h .In sys/socket.h .In netinet/in.h .In arpa/inet.h .Ft int .Fn inet_aton "const char *cp" "struct in_addr *pin" .Ft in_addr_t .Fn inet_addr "const char *cp" .Ft in_addr_t .Fn inet_network "const char *cp" .Ft char * .Fn inet_ntoa "struct in_addr in" .Ft const char * .Fn inet_ntop "int af" "const void *src" "char *dst" "size_t size" .Ft int .Fn inet_pton "int af" "const char *src" "void *dst" .Ft struct in_addr .Fn inet_makeaddr "in_addr_t net" "in_addr_t lna" .Ft in_addr_t .Fn inet_lnaof "struct in_addr in" .Ft in_addr_t .Fn inet_netof "struct in_addr in" .Sh DESCRIPTION The routines .Fn inet_aton , .Fn inet_addr and .Fn inet_network interpret character strings representing numbers expressed in the Internet standard .Ql .\& notation. .Pp The .Fn inet_pton function converts a presentation format address (that is, printable form as held in a character string) to network format (usually a .Ft struct in_addr or some other internal binary representation, in network byte order). It returns 1 if the address was valid for the specified address family, or 0 if the address wasn't parseable in the specified address family, or -1 if some system error occurred (in which case .Va errno will have been set). This function is presently valid for .Dv AF_INET and .Dv AF_INET6 . .Pp The .Fn inet_aton routine interprets the specified character string as an Internet address, placing the address into the structure provided. It returns 1 if the string was successfully interpreted, or 0 if the string is invalid. The .Fn inet_addr and .Fn inet_network functions return numbers suitable for use as Internet addresses and Internet network numbers, respectively. .Pp The function .Fn inet_ntop converts an address from network format (usually a .Ft struct in_addr or some other binary form, in network byte order) to presentation format (suitable for external display purposes). It returns NULL if a system error occurs (in which case, .Va errno will have been set), or it returns a pointer to the destination string. This function is presently valid for .Dv AF_INET and .Dv AF_INET6 . .Pp The routine .Fn inet_ntoa takes an Internet address and returns an .Tn ASCII string representing the address in .Ql .\& notation. The routine .Fn inet_makeaddr takes an Internet network number and a local network address and constructs an Internet address from it. The routines .Fn inet_netof and .Fn inet_lnaof break apart Internet host addresses, returning the network number and local network address part, respectively. .Pp All Internet addresses are returned in network order (bytes ordered from left to right). All network numbers and local address parts are returned as machine byte order integer values. .Sh INTERNET ADDRESSES Values specified using the .Ql .\& notation take one of the following forms: .Bd -literal -offset indent a.b.c.d a.b.c a.b a .Ed .Pp When four parts are specified, each is interpreted as a byte of data and assigned, from left to right, to the four bytes of an Internet address. Note that when an Internet address is viewed as a 32-bit integer quantity on the .Tn VAX the bytes referred to above appear as .Dq Li d.c.b.a . That is, .Tn VAX bytes are ordered from right to left. .Pp When a three part address is specified, the last part is interpreted as a 16-bit quantity and placed in the right-most two bytes of the network address. This makes the three part address format convenient for specifying Class B network addresses as .Dq Li 128.net.host . .Pp When a two part address is supplied, the last part is interpreted as a 24-bit quantity and placed in the right most three bytes of the network address. This makes the two part address format convenient for specifying Class A network addresses as .Dq Li net.host . .Pp When only one part is given, the value is stored directly in the network address without any byte rearrangement. .Pp All numbers supplied as .Dq parts in a .Ql .\& notation may be decimal, octal, or hexadecimal, as specified in the C language (i.e., a leading 0x or 0X implies hexadecimal; otherwise, a leading 0 implies octal; otherwise, the number is interpreted as decimal). .Pp The .Fn inet_aton and .Fn inet_ntoa functions are semi-deprecated in favor of the .Xr addr2ascii 3 family. However, since those functions are not yet widely implemented, portable programs cannot rely on their presence and will continue to use the .Xr inet 3 functions for some time. .Sh DIAGNOSTICS The constant .Dv INADDR_NONE is returned by .Fn inet_addr and .Fn inet_network for malformed requests. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr addr2ascii 3 , .Xr byteorder 3 , .Xr gethostbyname 3 , .Xr getnetent 3 , .Xr inet_net 3 , .Xr hosts 5 , .Xr networks 5 .Rs .%R RFC .%N 2373 .%D July 1998 .%T "IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture" .Re .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn inet_ntop and .Fn inet_pton functions conform to .St -xns5.2 . Note that .Fn inet_pton does not accept 1-, 2-, or 3-part dotted addresses; all four parts must be specified and are interpreted only as decimal values. This is a narrower input set than that accepted by .Fn inet_aton . .Sh HISTORY These functions appeared in .Bx 4.2 . .Sh BUGS The value .Dv INADDR_NONE (0xffffffff) is a valid broadcast address, but .Fn inet_addr cannot return that value without indicating failure. The newer .Fn inet_aton function does not share this problem. The problem of host byte ordering versus network byte ordering is confusing. The string returned by .Fn inet_ntoa resides in a static memory area. .Pp Inet_addr should return a .Fa struct in_addr .