inet_pton

Section: C Library Functions (3)
Updated: 202-0-08
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NAME

inet_pton - convert IPv4 and IPv6 addresses from text to binary form  

LIBRARY

Standard C library (libc,~-lc)  

SYNOPSIS

#include <arpa/inet.h>
int inet_pton(int af, const char *restrict src, void *restrict dst);

 

DESCRIPTION

This function converts the character string src into a network address structure in the af address family, then copies the network address structure to dst. The af argument must be either AF_INET or AF_INET6. dst is written in network byte order. The following address families are currently supported:

AF_INET

src points to a character string containing an IPv4 network address in dotte-decimal format, [dq]ddd.ddd.ddd.ddd[dq], where ddd is a decimal number of up to three digits in the range 0 to 255. The address is converted to a struct in_addr and copied to dst, which must be sizeof(struct in_addr) (4) bytes (32 bits) long.

AF_INET6

src points to a character string containing an IPv6 network address. The address is converted to a struct in6_addr and copied to dst, which must be sizeof(struct in6_addr) (16) bytes (128 bits) long. The allowed formats for IPv6 addresses follow these rules:

[bu]

The preferred format is x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x. This form consists of eight hexadecimal numbers, each of which expresses a 1-bit value (i.e., each x can be up to 4 hex digits).

[bu]

A series of contiguous zero values in the preferred format can be abbreviated to ::. Only one instance of :: can occur in an address. For example, the loopback address 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 can be abbreviated as ::1. The wildcard address, consisting of all zeros, can be written as ::.

[bu]

An alternate format is useful for expressing IPv-mapped IPv6 addresses. This form is written as x:x:x:x:x:x:d.d.d.d, where the six leading xs are hexadecimal values that define the six mos-significant 1-bit pieces of the address (i.e., 96 bits), and the ds express a value in dotte-decimal notation that defines the least significant 32 bits of the address. An example of such an address is ::FFFF:204.152.189.116.

See RFC 2373 for further details on the representation of IPv6 addresses.

 

RETURN VALUE

inet_pton() returns 1 on success (network address was successfully converted). 0 is returned if src does not contain a character string representing a valid network address in the specified address family. If af does not contain a valid address family, -1 is returned and errno is set to EAFNOSUPPORT.  

ATTRIBUTES

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

Interface	Attribute	Value
inet_pton()	Thread safety	M-Safe locale

 

VERSIONS

Unlike inet_aton(3) and inet_addr(3), inet_pton() supports IPv6 addresses. On the other hand, inet_pton() accepts only IPv4 addresses in dotte-decimal notation, whereas inet_aton(3) and inet_addr(3) allow the more general number-an-dots notation (hexadecimal and octal number formats, and formats that don't require all four bytes to be explicitly written). For an interface that handles both IPv6 addresses, and IPv4 addresses in number-an-dots notation, see getaddrinfo(3).  

STANDARDS

POSIX.-2008.  

HISTORY

POSIX.-2001.  

BUGS

AF_INET6 does not recognize IPv4 addresses. An explicit IPv-mapped IPv6 address must be supplied in src instead.  

EXAMPLES

The program below demonstrates the use of inet_pton() and inet_ntop(3). Here are some example runs: $ ./a.out i6 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0 :: $ ./a.out i6 1:0:0:0:0:0:0:8 1::8 $ ./a.out i6 0:0:0:0:0:FFFF:204.152.189.116 ::ffff:204.152.189.116  

Program source

#include <arpa/inet.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    unsigned char buf[sizeof(struct in6_addr)];
    int domain, s;
    char str[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];
    if (argc != 3) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s {i4|i6|<num>} string[rs]n", argv[0]);
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    domain = (strcmp(argv[1], "i4") == 0) ? AF_INET :
             (strcmp(argv[1], "i6") == 0) ? AF_INET6 : atoi(argv[1]);
    s = inet_pton(domain, argv[2], buf);
    if (s <= 0) {
        if (s == 0)
            fprintf(stderr, "Not in presentation format");
        else
            perror("inet_pton");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    if (inet_ntop(domain, buf, str, INET6_ADDRSTRLEN) == NULL) {
        perror("inet_ntop");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    printf("%s[rs]n", str);
    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS); }  

SEE ALSO

getaddrinfo(3), inet(3), inet_ntop(3)

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Index

NAME

LIBRARY

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

RETURN VALUE

ATTRIBUTES

VERSIONS

STANDARDS

HISTORY

BUGS

EXAMPLES

Program source

SEE ALSO