Synopsis
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netdb.h>
void freeaddrinfo(struct addrinfo *ai);
int getaddrinfo(const char *restrict nodename,
const char *restrict _servname_,
const struct addrinfo *restrict hints,
struct addrinfo **restrict res);
Status
Partially implemented
Conformance
IEEE Std 1003.1-2017
Description
The purpose is to get address information. The freeaddrinfo()
function shall free one or more addrinfo
structures returned by getaddrinfo()
, along
with any additional storage associated with those structures. If the ai_next
field of the structure is not null
, the entire
list of structures shall be freed. The freeaddrinfo()
function shall support the freeing of arbitrary sublists of an
addrinfo
list originally returned by getaddrinfo()
.
The getaddrinfo()
function shall translate the name of a service location (for example, a host name) and/or a service
name and shall return a set of socket addresses and associated information to be used in creating a socket with which to address
the specified service.
Note:
In many cases it is implemented by the Domain Name System, as documented in RFC 1034
, RFC 1035
, and
RFC 1886
.
The freeaddrinfo()
and getaddrinfo()
functions shall be thread-safe.
The nodename and servname arguments are either null
pointers or pointers to null
-terminated strings. One or both
of these two arguments shall be supplied by the application as a non-null
pointer.
The format of a valid name depends on the address family or families. If a specific family is not given and the name could be interpreted as valid within multiple supported families, the implementation shall attempt to resolve the name in all supported families and, in absence of errors, one or more results shall be returned.
If the nodename argument is not null
, it can be a descriptive name or can be an address string. If the specified address
family is AF_INET
, AF_INET6
, or AF_UNSPEC
, valid
descriptive names include host names. If the specified address family is AF_INET
or AF_UNSPEC,
address strings using Internet
standard dot notation as specified in inet_addr
are valid.
If the specified address family is AF_INET6
or AF_UNSPEC
, standard IPv6
text forms described in inet_ntop
are valid.
If nodename is not null
, the requested service location is named by nodename, otherwise, the requested service
location is local to the caller.
If servname is null
, the call shall return network-level addresses for the specified nodename. If servname
is not null
, it is a null
-terminated character string identifying the requested service. This can be either a descriptive name or a
numeric representation suitable for use with the address family or families. If the specified address family is AF_INET
,
AF_INET6
, or AF_UNSPEC
, the service can be specified as a
string specifying a decimal port number.
If the hints argument is not null
, it refers to a structure containing input values that directs the operation by
providing options and by limiting the returned information to a specific socket type, address family, and/or protocol, as described
below. The application shall ensure that each of the ai_addrlen
, ai_addr
, ai_canonname
, and ai_next
members, as well as each of the non-standard additional members, if any, of this hints structure is initialized. If any of
these members has a value other than the value that would result from default initialization, the behavior is
implementation-defined. A value of AF_UNSPEC
for ai_family
means that the caller shall accept any address family. A value of
zero for ai_socktype
means that the caller shall accept any socket type. A value of zero for ai_protocol
means that
the caller shall accept any protocol. If hints is a null
pointer, the behavior shall be as if it referred to a structure
containing the value zero for the ai_flags
, ai_socktype
, and ai_protocol
fields, and AF_UNSPEC
for the
ai_family
field.
The ai_flags
field to which the hints parameter points shall be set to zero or be the bitwise-inclusive OR of one
or more of the values AI_PASSIVE
, AI_CANONNAME
, AI_NUMERICHOST
, AI_NUMERICSERV
, AI_V4MAPPED
, AI_ALL
, and AI_ADDRCONFIG
.
If the AI_PASSIVE
flag is specified, the returned address information shall be suitable for use in binding a socket for
accepting incoming connections for the specified service. In this case, if the nodename argument is null
, then the IP
address portion of the socket address structure shall be set to INADDR_ANY
for an IPv4
address or IN6ADDR_ANY_INIT
for an IPv6
address. If the AI_PASSIVE
flag is not specified, the returned address information shall be suitable for a call to connect()
(for a connection-mode protocol) or for a call to connect()
, sendto()
, or sendmsg()
(for a connectionless protocol). In this case, if the nodename argument is
null
, then the IP address portion of the socket address structure shall be set to the loopback address. The AI_PASSIVE
flag shall
be ignored if the nodename argument is not null
.
If the AI_CANONNAME
flag is specified and the nodename argument is not null
, the function shall attempt to determine the
canonical name corresponding to nodename (for example, if nodename is an alias or shorthand notation for a complete
name).
- Since different implementations use different conceptual models, the terms
canonical name
andalias
cannot be precisely defined for the general case. However, Domain Name System implementations are expected to interpret them as they are used inRFC 1034
.
A numeric host address string is not a name
, and thus does not have a canonical name
form; no address to host name translation is performed. See below for handling of the case where a canonical name cannot be obtained.
If the AI_NUMERICHOST
flag is specified, then a non-null
nodename string supplied shall be a numeric host address string.
Otherwise, an EAI_NONAME
error is returned. This flag shall prevent any type of name resolution service (for example, the DNS
)
from being invoked.
If the AI_NUMERICSERV
flag is specified, then a non-null
servname string supplied shall be a numeric port string.
Otherwise, an EAI_NONAME
error shall be returned. This flag shall prevent any type of name resolution service (for example, NIS+
)
from being invoked.
By default, with an ai_family
of AF_INET6
, getaddrinfo()
shall return only IPv6
addresses. If the AI_V4MAPPED
flag is
specified along with an ai_family
of AF_INET6
, then getaddrinfo()
shall return IPv4
-mapped IPv6
addresses on finding
no matching IPv6
addresses. The AI_V4MAPPED
flag shall be ignored unless ai_family
equals AF_INET6
. If the AI_ALL
flag is
used with the AI_V4MAPPED
flag, then getaddrinfo()
shall return all matching IPv6
and IPv4
addresses. The AI_ALL
flag
without the AI_V4MAPPED
flag shall be ignored.
If the AI_ADDRCONFIG
flag is specified, IPv4
addresses shall be returned only if an IPv4
address is configured on the local
system, and IPv6
addresses shall be returned only if an IPv6
address is configured on the local system.
The ai_socktype
field to which argument hints points specifies the socket type for the service, as defined in socket. If a specific socket type is not given (for example, a value of zero) and the
service name could be interpreted as valid with multiple supported socket types, the implementation shall attempt to resolve the
service name for all supported socket types and, in the absence of errors, all possible results shall be returned. A non-zero
socket type value shall limit the returned information to values with the specified socket type.
If the ai_family
field to which hints points has the value AF_UNSPEC
, addresses shall be returned for use with any
address family that can be used with the specified nodename and/or servname. Otherwise, addresses shall be returned
for use only with the specified address family. If ai_family
is not AF_UNSPEC
and ai_protocol
is not zero, then
addresses shall be returned for use only with the specified address family and protocol; the value of ai_protocol
shall be
interpreted as in a call to the socket()
function with the corresponding values of
ai_family
and ai_protocol
.
Return value
A zero return value for getaddrinfo()
indicates successful completion, a non-zero return value indicates failure. The possible values for the failures are listed in the ERRORS
section.
Upon successful return of getaddrinfo()
, the location to which res points shall refer to a linked list of addrinfo
structures, each of which shall specify a socket address and information for use in creating a socket with which to use that socket address. The list shall include at least one addrinfo
structure. The ai_next
field of each structure contains a pointer to the next structure on the list, or a null
pointer if it is the last structure on the list. Each structure on the list shall include values for use with a call to the socket()
function, and a socket address for use with the connect()
function or, if the AI_PASSIVE
flag was specified, for use with the bind()
function. The fields ai_family
, ai_socktype
, and ai_protocol
shall be usable as the arguments to the socket()
function to create a socket suitable for use with the returned address. The fields ai_addr
and ai_addrlen
are usable as the arguments to the connect()
or bind()
functions with such a socket, according to the AI_PASSIVE
flag.
If nodename is not null
, and if requested by the AI_CANONNAME
flag, the ai_canonname
field of the first returned addrinfo
structure shall point to a null
-terminated string containing the canonical name corresponding to the input nodename, if the canonical name is not available, then ai_canonname shall refer to the nodename argument or a string with the same contents. The contents of the ai_flags field of the returned structures are undefined.
All fields in socket address structures returned by getaddrinfo()
that are not filled in through an explicit argument (for example, sin6_flowinfo
) shall be set to zero.
Note:
This makes it easier to compare socket address structures.
Errors
The getaddrinfo()
function shall fail and return the corresponding error value if:
-
EAI_AGAIN
- The name could not be resolved at this time. Future attempts may succeed. -
EAI_BADFLAGS
- The flags parameter had an invalid value. -
EAI_FAIL
- A non-recoverable error occurred when attempting to resolve the name. -
EAI_FAMILY
- The address family was not recognized. -
EAI_MEMORY
- There was a memory allocation failure when trying to allocate storage for the return value. -
EAI_NONAME
- The name does not resolve for the supplied parameters.
Neither nodename nor servname were supplied. At least one of these shall be supplied.
-
EAI_SERVICE
- The service passed was not recognized for the specified socket type. -
EAI_SOCKTYPE
- The intended socket type was not recognized. -
EAI_SYSTEM
- A system error occurred, the error code can be found inerrno
.
Tests
Untested
Known bugs
None