xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/net/linkaddr.3 (revision 2cd2d2b5)
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35.\"     From: @(#)linkaddr.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 7/28/93
36.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/net/linkaddr.3,v 1.8.2.4 2001/12/14 18:33:55 ru Exp $
37.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/net/linkaddr.3,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:26:44 dillon Exp $
38.\"
39.Dd June 17, 1996
40.Dt LINK_ADDR 3
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm link_addr ,
44.Nm link_ntoa
45.Nd elementary address specification routines for link level access
46.Sh LIBRARY
47.Lb libc
48.Sh SYNOPSIS
49.In sys/types.h
50.In sys/socket.h
51.In net/if_dl.h
52.Ft void
53.Fn link_addr "const char *addr" "struct sockaddr_dl *sdl"
54.Ft char *
55.Fn link_ntoa "const struct sockaddr_dl *sdl"
56.Sh DESCRIPTION
57The routine
58.Fn link_addr
59interprets character strings representing
60link-level addresses, returning binary information suitable
61for use in system calls.
62The routine
63.Fn link_ntoa
64takes
65a link-level
66address and returns an
67.Tn ASCII
68string representing some of the information present,
69including the link level address itself, and the interface name
70or number, if present.
71This facility is experimental and is
72still subject to change.
73.Pp
74For
75.Fn link_addr ,
76the string
77.Fa addr
78may contain
79an optional network interface identifier of the form
80.Dq "name unit-number" ,
81suitable for the first argument to
82.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
83followed in all cases by a colon and
84an interface address in the form of
85groups of hexadecimal digits
86separated by periods.
87Each group represents a byte of address;
88address bytes are filled left to right from
89low order bytes through high order bytes.
90.Pp
91.\" A regular expression may make this format clearer:
92.\" .Bd -literal -offset indent
93.\" ([a-z]+[0-9]+:)?[0-9a-f]+(\e.[0-9a-f]+)*
94.\" .Ed
95.\" .Pp
96Thus
97.Li le0:8.0.9.13.d.30
98represents an ethernet address
99to be transmitted on the first Lance ethernet interface.
100.Pp
101The direct use of these functions is deprecated in favor of the
102.Xr addr2ascii 3
103interface; however, portable programs cannot rely on the latter as it is
104not yet widely implemented.
105.Sh RETURN VALUES
106.Fn link_ntoa
107always returns a null terminated string.
108.Fn link_addr
109has no return value.
110(See
111.Sx BUGS . )
112.Sh SEE ALSO
113.Xr addr2ascii 3
114.\" .Xr iso 4
115.Sh HISTORY
116The
117.Fn link_addr
118and
119.Fn link_ntoa
120functions appeared in
121.Bx 4.3 Reno  .
122.Sh BUGS
123The returned values for link_ntoa
124reside in a static memory area.
125.Pp
126The function
127.Fn link_addr
128should diagnose improperly formed input, and there should be an unambiguous
129way to recognize this.
130.Pp
131If the
132.Va sdl_len
133field of the link socket address
134.Fa sdl
135is 0,
136.Fn link_ntoa
137will not insert a colon before the interface address bytes.
138If this translated address is given to
139.Fn link_addr
140without inserting an initial colon,
141the latter will not interpret it correctly.
142