getipnodebynamegetipnodebyaddrfreehostent
- nodename-to-address and address-to-nodename translation
LIBRARY
Lb libc
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netdb.h> struct hostent *
getipnodebyname (const char *name int af int flags int *error_num); struct hostent *
getipnodebyaddr (const void *src size_t len int af int *error_num); void
freehostent (struct hostent *ptr);
DESCRIPTION
The
getipnodebyname ();
and
getipnodebyaddr ();
functions are very similar to
gethostbyname(3),
gethostbyname2(3)
and
gethostbyaddr(3).
The functions cover all the functionalities provided by the older ones,
and provide better interface to programmers.
The functions require additional arguments,
Fa af ,
and
Fa flags ,
for specifying address family and operation mode.
The additional arguments allow programmer to get address for a nodename,
for specific address family
(such as
AF_INET
or
AF_INET6 )
The functions also require an additional pointer argument,
Fa error_num
to return the appropriate error code,
to support thread safe error code returns.
The type and usage of the return value,
struct hostent
is described in
gethostbyname(3).
For
getipnodebyname (,);
the
Fa name
argument can be either a node name or a numeric address
string
(i.e., a dotted-decimal IPv4 address or an IPv6 hex address).
The
Fa af
argument specifies the address family, either
AF_INET
or
AF_INET6
The
Fa flags
argument specifies the types of addresses that are searched for,
and the types of addresses that are returned.
We note that a special flags value of
AI_DEFAULT
(defined below)
should handle most applications.
That is, porting simple applications to use IPv6 replaces the call
Applications desiring finer control over the types of addresses
searched for and returned, can specify other combinations of the
Fa flags
argument.
A
Fa flags
of
0
implies a strict interpretation of the
Fa af
argument:
If
Fa flags
is 0 and
Fa af
is
AF_INET
then the caller wants only IPv4 addresses.
A query is made for
A
records.
If successful, the IPv4 addresses are returned and the
h_length
member of the
hostent
structure will be 4, else the function returns a
NULL
pointer.
If
Fa flags
is 0 and if
Fa af
is
AF_INET6
then the caller wants only IPv6 addresses.
A query is made for
AAAA
records.
If successful, the IPv6 addresses are returned and the
h_length
member of the
hostent
structure will be 16, else the function returns a
NULL
pointer.
Other constants can be logically-ORed into the
Fa flags
argument, to modify the behavior of the function.
If the
AI_V4MAPPED
flag is specified along with an
Fa af
of
AF_INET6
then the caller will accept IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses.
That is, if no
AAAA
records are found then a query is made for
A
records and any found are returned as IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses
( h_length
will be 16).
The
AI_V4MAPPED
flag is ignored unless
Fa af
equals
AF_INET6
The
AI_V4MAPPED_CFG
flag is exact same as the
AI_V4MAPPED
flag only if the kernel supports IPv4-mapped IPv6 address.
If the
AI_ALL
flag is used in conjunction with the
AI_V4MAPPED
flag, and only used with the IPv6 address family.
When
AI_ALL
is logically or'd with
AI_V4MAPPED
flag then the caller wants all addresses: IPv6 and IPv4-mapped IPv6.
A query is first made for
AAAA
records and if successful, the
IPv6 addresses are returned.
Another query is then made for
A
records and any found are returned as IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses.
h_length
will be 16.
Only if both queries fail does the function
return a
NULL
pointer.
This flag is ignored unless af equals
AF_INET6.
If both
AI_ALL
and
AI_V4MAPPED
are specified,
AI_ALL
takes precedence.
The
AI_ADDRCONFIG
flag specifies that a query for
AAAA
records
should occur only if the node has at least one IPv6 source
address configured and a query for
A
records should occur only if the node has at least one IPv4 source address
configured.
For example, if the node has no IPv6 source addresses configured,
and
Fa af
equals AF_INET6, and the node name being looked up has both
AAAA
and
A
records, then:
(a) if only
AI_ADDRCONFIG
is
specified, the function returns a
NULL
pointer;
(b) if
AI_ADDRCONFIG
|
AI_V4MAPPED
is specified, the
A
records are returned as IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses;
The special flags value of
AI_DEFAULT
is defined as
We noted that the
getipnodebyname ();
function must allow the
Fa name
argument to be either a node name or a literal address string
(i.e., a dotted-decimal IPv4 address or an IPv6 hex address).
This saves applications from having to call
inet_pton3
to handle literal address strings.
When the
Fa name
argument is a literal address string,
the
Fa flags
argument is always ignored.
There are four scenarios based on the type of literal address string
and the value of the
Fa af
argument.
The two simple cases are when
Fa name
is a dotted-decimal IPv4 address and
Fa af
equals
AF_INET
or when
Fa name
is an IPv6 hex address and
Fa af
equals
AF_INET6
The members of the
returned hostent structure are:
h_name
points to a copy of the
Fa name
argument,
h_aliases
is a
NULL
pointer,
h_addrtype
is a copy of the
Fa af
argument,
h_length
is either 4
(for
AF_INET
or 16
(for
AF_INET6 )h_addr_list[0]
is a pointer to the 4-byte or 16-byte binary address,
and
h_addr_list[1]
is a
NULL
pointer.
When
Fa name
is a dotted-decimal IPv4 address and
Fa af
equals
AF_INET6
and
AI_V4MAPPED
is specified,
an IPv4-mapped IPv6 address is returned:
h_name
points to an IPv6 hex address containing the IPv4-mapped IPv6 address,
h_aliases
is a
NULL
pointer,
h_addrtype
is
AF_INET6h_length
is 16,
h_addr_list[0]
is a pointer to the 16-byte binary address, and
h_addr_list[1]
is a
NULL
pointer.
It is an error when
Fa name
is an IPv6 hex address and
Fa af
equals
AF_INET
The function's return value is a
NULL
pointer and the value pointed to by
Fa error_num
equals
HOST_NOT_FOUND
The
getipnodebyaddr ();
function
takes almost the same argument as
gethostbyaddr(3),
but adds a pointer to return an error number.
Additionally it takes care of IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses,
and IPv4-compatible IPv6 addresses.
The
getipnodebyname ();
and
getipnodebyaddr ();
functions
dynamically allocate the structure to be returned to the caller.
The
freehostent ();
function
reclaims memory region allocated and returned by
getipnodebyname ();
or
getipnodebyaddr (.);
FILES
/etc/hosts
/etc/nsswitch.conf
/etc/resolv.conf
DIAGNOSTICS
The
getipnodebyname ();
and
getipnodebyaddr ();
functions
returns
NULL
on errors.
The integer values pointed to by
Fa error_num
may then be checked to see whether this is a temporary failure
or an invalid or unknown host.
The meanings of each error code are described in
gethostbyname(3).
R. Gilligan
S. Thomson
J. Bound
W. Stevens
Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6RFC2553
March 1999
STANDARDS
The
getipnodebyname ();
and
getipnodebyaddr ();
functions
are documented in
``Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6''
(RFC2553).
HISTORY
The implementation first appeared in KAME advanced networking kit.
BUGS
The
getipnodebyname ();
and
getipnodebyaddr ();
functions
do not handle scoped IPv6 address properly.
If you use these functions,
your program will not be able to handle scoped IPv6 addresses.
For IPv6 address manipulation,
getaddrinfo (3);
and
getnameinfo (3);
are recommended.