.\" Copyright 2000 Sam Varshavchik <mrsam@stop.mail-abuse.org>
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.TH inet_pton 3  "May 18, 2000" "Linux Man Page" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
inet_pton - Create a network address structure
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B "#include <sys/types.h>
.B "#include <sys/socket.h>
.B "#include <arpa/inet.h>
.sp
.BI "int inet_pton(int " "af" ", const char *" "src" ", void *" "dst" ");
.SH DESCRIPTION
This function converts the character string
.I src
into a network address structure in the
.I af
address family, then
copies
the network address structure to
.IR dst .

.BR inet_pton (3)
extends the
.BR inet_addr (3)
function to support multiple address families,
.BR inet_addr (3)
is now considered to be deprecated in favor of
.BR inet_pton (3).
The following address families are currently supported:
.TP 14
.B AF_INET
.I src
points to a character string containing an IPv4 network address in
the dotted-quad format, "\fIddd.ddd.ddd.ddd\fP".
The address is converted
to a
.I "struct in_addr"
and copied to
.IR dst,
which must be
.I "sizeof(struct in_addr)"
bytes long.
.TP 14
.B AF_INET6
.I src
points to a character string containing an IPv6 network address in
any allowed IPv6 address format.
The address is converted
to a
.I "struct in6_addr"
and copied to
.IR dst,
which must be
.I "sizeof(struct in6_addr)"
bytes long.
.PP
Certain legacy hex and octal formats of
.B AF_INET
addresses are not supported by
.IR inet_pton ,
which rejects them.
.SH RETURN VALUES
.B inet_pton
returns a negative value and sets
.I errno
to
.B EAFNOSUPPORT
if
.I af
does not contain a valid address family.
0 is returned if
.I src
does not contain a character string representing a valid network
address in the specified address family.
A positive value is returned if the network address was succesfully
converted.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR inet_ntop (3)
.SH BUGS
.B AF_INET6
does not recognize IPv4 addresses.
An explicit IPv6-mapped IPv4 address must be supplied in
.I src
instead.