xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/net/linkaddr.3 (revision 9ddb8543)
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31.\"     From: @(#)linkaddr.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 7/28/93
32.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/net/linkaddr.3,v 1.16 2007/02/28 21:18:38 bms Exp $
33.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/net/linkaddr.3,v 1.3 2008/11/23 21:55:52 swildner Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd February 28, 2007
36.Dt LINK_ADDR 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm link_addr ,
40.Nm link_ntoa
41.Nd elementary address specification routines for link level access
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.In sys/types.h
46.In sys/socket.h
47.In net/if_dl.h
48.Ft void
49.Fn link_addr "const char *addr" "struct sockaddr_dl *sdl"
50.Ft char *
51.Fn link_ntoa "const struct sockaddr_dl *sdl"
52.Sh DESCRIPTION
53The routine
54.Fn link_addr
55interprets character strings representing
56link-level addresses, returning binary information suitable
57for use in system calls.
58The routine
59.Fn link_ntoa
60takes
61a link-level
62address and returns an
63.Tn ASCII
64string representing some of the information present,
65including the link level address itself, and the interface name
66or number, if present.
67This facility is experimental and is
68still subject to change.
69.Pp
70For
71.Fn link_addr ,
72the string
73.Fa addr
74may contain
75an optional network interface identifier of the form
76.Dq "name unit-number" ,
77suitable for the first argument to
78.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
79followed in all cases by a colon and
80an interface address in the form of
81groups of hexadecimal digits
82separated by periods.
83Each group represents a byte of address;
84address bytes are filled left to right from
85low order bytes through high order bytes.
86.Pp
87.\" A regular expression may make this format clearer:
88.\" .Bd -literal -offset indent
89.\" ([a-z]+[0-9]+:)?[0-9a-f]+(\e.[0-9a-f]+)*
90.\" .Ed
91.\" .Pp
92Thus
93.Li le0:8.0.9.13.d.30
94represents an ethernet address
95to be transmitted on the first Lance ethernet interface.
96.Sh RETURN VALUES
97The
98.Fn link_ntoa
99function
100always returns a null terminated string.
101The
102.Fn link_addr
103function
104has no return value.
105(See
106.Sx BUGS . )
107.Sh SEE ALSO
108.Xr getnameinfo 3
109.Sh HISTORY
110The
111.Fn link_addr
112and
113.Fn link_ntoa
114functions appeared in
115.Bx 4.3 Reno .
116.Sh BUGS
117The returned values for
118.Fn link_ntoa
119reside in a static memory area.
120.Pp
121The function
122.Fn link_addr
123should diagnose improperly formed input, and there should be an unambiguous
124way to recognize this.
125.Pp
126If the
127.Va sdl_len
128field of the link socket address
129.Fa sdl
130is 0,
131.Fn link_ntoa
132will not insert a colon before the interface address bytes.
133If this translated address is given to
134.Fn link_addr
135without inserting an initial colon,
136the latter will not interpret it correctly.
137