inet(4) - NetBSD Manual Pages

INET(4)                 NetBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual                INET(4)


NAME
inet -- Internet protocol family
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h> #include <netinet/in.h>
DESCRIPTION
The Internet protocol family is a collection of protocols layered atop the Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and using the Internet address format. The Internet family provides protocol support for the SOCK_STREAM, SOCK_DGRAM, and SOCK_RAW socket types; the SOCK_RAW inter- face provides access to the IP protocol.
ADDRESSING
Internet addresses are four byte quantities, stored in network standard format (on the VAX these are word and byte reversed). The include file <netinet/in.h> defines this address as a discriminated union. Sockets bound to the Internet protocol family use the following address- ing structure, struct sockaddr_in { uint8_t sin_len; sa_family_t sin_family; in_port_t sin_port; struct in_addr sin_addr; int8_t sin_zero[8]; }; Sockets may be created with the local address INADDR_ANY to effect ``wildcard'' matching on incoming messages. The address in a connect(2) or sendto(2) call may be given as INADDR_ANY to mean ``this host''. The distinguished address INADDR_BROADCAST is allowed as a shorthand for the broadcast address on the primary network if the first network configured supports broadcast.
PROTOCOLS
The Internet protocol family comprises the IP transport protocol, Inter- net Control Message Protocol (ICMP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). TCP is used to support the SOCK_STREAM abstraction while UDP is used to support the SOCK_DGRAM abstraction. A raw interface to IP is available by creating an Internet socket of type SOCK_RAW. The ICMP message protocol is accessible from a raw socket. The 32-bit Internet address contains both network and host parts. It is frequency-encoded; the most-significant bit is clear in Class A addresses, in which the high-order 8 bits are the network number. Class B addresses use the high-order 16 bits as the network field, and Class C addresses have a 24-bit network part. Sites with a cluster of local net- works and a connection to the Internet may chose to use a single network number for the cluster; this is done by using subnet addressing. The local (host) portion of the address is further subdivided into subnet and host parts. Within a subnet, each subnet appears to be an individual network; externally, the entire cluster appears to be a single, uniform network requiring only a single routing entry. Subnet addressing is enabled and examined by the following ioctl(2) commands on a datagram socket in the Internet domain; they have the same form as the SIOCIFADDR command (see netintro(4)). SIOCSIFNETMASK Set interface network mask. The network mask defines the network part of the address; if it contains more of the address than the address type would indicate, then sub- nets are in use. SIOCGIFNETMASK Get interface network mask.
SEE ALSO
ioctl(2), socket(2), icmp(4), intro(4), ip(4), netintro(4), tcp(4), udp(4) Stuart Sechrest, An Introductory 4.4BSD Interprocess Communication Tutorial. (see /usr/share/doc/psd/20.ipctut) Samuel J. Leffler, Robert S. Fabry, William N. Joy, Phil Lapsley, Steve Miller, and Chris Torek, Advanced 4.4BSD IPC Tutorial. (see /usr/share/doc/psd/21.ipc)
HISTORY
The inet protocol interface appeared in 4.2BSD.
BUGS
The Internet protocol support is subject to change as the Internet proto- cols develop. Users should not depend on details of the current imple- mentation, but rather the services exported. NetBSD 5.2.2 May 15, 2003 NetBSD 5.2.2

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