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

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

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 dotted-decimal format, "ddd.ddd.ddd.ddd", 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:

• The preferred format is x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x. This form consists of eight hexadecimal numbers, each of which expresses a 16-bit value (i.e., each x can be up to 4 hex digits).

• 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 ::.

• An alternate format is useful for expressing IPv4-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 most-significant 16-bit pieces of the address (i.e., 96 bits), and the ds express a value in dotted-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.

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.

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\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\n", str);
    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

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