getnameinfo(3) - NetBSD Manual Pages

GETNAMEINFO(3)            NetBSD Programmer's Manual            GETNAMEINFO(3)


NAME

     getnameinfo - address-to-nodename translation in protocol-independent
     manner


LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)


SYNOPSIS

     #include <netdb.h>

     int
     getnameinfo(const struct sockaddr *sa, socklen_t salen, char *host,
             socklen_t hostlen, char *serv, socklen_t servlen, int flags);


DESCRIPTION

     The getnameinfo() function is defined for protocol-independent address-
     to-nodename translation.  Its functionality is a reverse conversion of
     getaddrinfo(3), and implements similar functionality with
     gethostbyaddr(3) and getservbyport(3) in more sophisticated manner.

     This function looks up an IP address and port number provided by the
     caller in the DNS and system-specific database, and returns text strings
     for both in buffers provided by the caller.  The function indicates suc-
     cessful completion by a zero return value; a non-zero return value indi-
     cates failure.

     The first argument, sa, points to either a sockaddr_in structure (for
     IPv4) or a sockaddr_in6 structure (for IPv6) that holds the IP address
     and port number.  The salen argument gives the length of the sockaddr_in
     or sockaddr_in6 structure.

     The function returns the nodename associated with the IP address in the
     buffer pointed to by the host argument.  The caller provides the size of
     this buffer via the hostlen argument.  The service name associated with
     the port number is returned in the buffer pointed to by serv, and the
     servlen argument gives the length of this buffer.  The caller specifies
     not to return either string by providing a zero value for the hostlen or
     servlen arguments.  Otherwise, the caller must provide buffers large
     enough to hold the nodename and the service name, including the terminat-
     ing null characters.

     Unfortunately most systems do not provide constants that specify the max-
     imum size of either a fully-qualified domain name or a service name.
     Therefore to aid the application in allocating buffers for these two re-
     turned strings the following constants are defined in <netdb.h>:

     #define NI_MAXHOST  1025
     #define NI_MAXSERV    32

     The first value is actually defined as the constant MAXDNAME in recent
     versions of BIND's <arpa/nameser.h> header (older versions of BIND define
     this constant to be 256) and the second is a guess based on the services
     listed in the current Assigned Numbers RFC.

     The final argument is a flag that changes the default actions of this
     function.  By default the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) for the host
     is looked up in the DNS and returned.  If the flag bit NI_NOFQDN is set,
     only the nodename portion of the FQDN is returned for local hosts.

     If the flag bit NI_NUMERICHOST is set, or if the host's name cannot be
     located in the DNS, the numeric form of the host's address is returned
     instead of its name (e.g., by calling inet_ntop() instead of
     gethostbyaddr()).  If the flag bit NI_NAMEREQD is set, an error is re-
     turned if the host's name cannot be located in the DNS.

     If the flag bit NI_NUMERICSERV is set, the numeric form of the service
     address is returned (e.g., its port number) instead of its name.  The two
     NI_NUMERICxxx flags are required to support the -n flag that many com-
     mands provide.

     A fifth flag bit, NI_DGRAM, specifies that the service is a datagram ser-
     vice, and causes getservbyport() to be called with a second argument of
     ``udp'' instead of its default of ``tcp''.  This is required for the few
     ports (512-514) that have different services for UDP and TCP.

     These NI_xxx flags are defined in <netdb.h>.

   Extension for scoped IPv6 address
     The implementation allows experimental numeric IPv6 address notation with
     scope identifier.  IPv6 link-local address will appear as string like
     ``fe80::1%ne0''.  Refer to getaddrinfo(3) for the notation.


EXAMPLES

     The following code tries to get numeric hostname, and service name, for
     given socket address.  Observe that there is no hardcoded reference to
     particular address family.

           struct sockaddr *sa;    /* input */
           char hbuf[NI_MAXHOST], sbuf[NI_MAXSERV];

           if (getnameinfo(sa, sa->sa_len, hbuf, sizeof(hbuf), sbuf,
               sizeof(sbuf), NI_NUMERICHOST | NI_NUMERICSERV)) {
                   errx(1, "could not get numeric hostname");
                   /*NOTREACHED*/
           }
           printf("host=%s, serv=%s\n", hbuf, sbuf);

     The following version checks if the socket address has reverse address
     mapping.

           struct sockaddr *sa;    /* input */
           char hbuf[NI_MAXHOST];

           if (getnameinfo(sa, sa->sa_len, hbuf, sizeof(hbuf), NULL, 0,
               NI_NAMEREQD)) {
                   errx(1, "could not resolve hostname");
                   /*NOTREACHED*/
           }
           printf("host=%s\n", hbuf);


DIAGNOSTICS

     The function indicates successful completion by a zero return value; a
     non-zero return value indicates failure.  Error codes are as below:

     EAI_AGAIN     The name could not be resolved at this time.  Future at-
                   tempts may succeed.

     EAI_BADFLAGS  The flags had an invalid value.

     EAI_FAIL      A non-recoverable error occurred.

     EAI_FAMILY    The address family was not recognized or the address length
                   was invalid for the specified family.

     EAI_MEMORY    There was a memory allocation failure.

     EAI_NONAME    The name does not resolve for the supplied parameters.
                   NI_NAMEREQD is set and the host's name cannot be located,
                   or both nodename and servname were null.

     EAI_SYSTEM    A system error occurred.  The error code can be found in
                   errno.


SEE ALSO

     getaddrinfo(3), gethostbyaddr(3), getservbyport(3), hosts(5),
     resolv.conf(5), services(5), hostname(7), named(8)

     R. Gilligan, S. Thomson, J. Bound, and W. Stevens, Basic Socket Interface
     Extensions for IPv6, RFC2553, March 1999.

     Tatsuya Jinmei and Atsushi Onoe, An Extension of Format for IPv6 Scoped
     Addresses, internet draft, draft-ietf-ipngwg-scopedaddr-format-02.txt,
     work in progress material.

     Craig Metz, "Protocol Independence Using the Sockets API", Proceedings of
     the freenix track: 2000 USENIX annual technical conference, June 2000.


STANDARDS

     The getnameinfo() function is defined IEEE POSIX 1003.1g draft specifica-
     tion, and documented in ``Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6''
     (RFC2553).


HISTORY

     The implementation first appeared in WIDE Hydrangea IPv6 protocol stack
     kit.


BUGS

     The current implementation is not thread-safe.

     The text was shamelessly copied from RFC2553.

NetBSD 1.6                       May 25, 1995                                3