beej.

us

Beej's Guide to Network Programming

Brian "Beej Jorgensen" Hall

Using Internet Sockets

beej@beej.us

Version 3.0.15
July 3, 2012

Copyright © 2012 Brian "Beej Jorgensen" Hall

Contents

1. Intro
1.1. Audience
1.2. Platform and Compiler
1.3. Official Homepage and Books For Sale
1.4. Note for Solaris/SunOS Programmers
1.5. Note for Windows Programmers
1.6. Email Policy
1.7. Mirroring
1.8. Note for Translators
1.9. Copyright and Distribution
2. What is a socket?
2.1. Two Types of Internet Sockets
2.2. Low level Nonsense and Network Theory
3. IP Addresses, structs, and Data Munging
3.1. IP Addresses, versions 4 and 6
3.2. Byte Order
3.3. structs
3.4. IP Addresses, Part Deux
4. Jumping from IPv4 to IPv6
5. System Calls or Bust
5.1. ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(())—Prepare to launch!
5.2. ssoocckkeett(())—Get the File Descriptor!
5.3. bbiinndd(())—What port am I on?
5.4. ccoonnnneecctt(())—Hey, you!
5.5. lliisstteenn(())—Will somebody please call me?
5.6. aacccceepptt(())—"Thank you for calling port 3490."
 5.7. sseenndd(()) and rreeccvv(())—Talk to me, baby!
5.8. sseennddttoo(()) and rreeccvvffrroomm(())—Talk to me, DGRAM-style
5.9. cclloossee(()) and sshhuuttddoowwnn(())—Get outta my face!
5.10. ggeettppeeeerrnnaammee(())—Who are you?
5.11. ggeetthhoossttnnaammee(())—Who am I?
6. Client-Server Background
6.1. A Simple Stream Server
6.2. A Simple Stream Client
6.3. Datagram Sockets
7. Slightly Advanced Techniques
7.1. Blocking
7.2. sseelleecctt(())—Synchronous I/O Multiplexing
7.3. Handling Partial sseenndd(())s
7.4. Serialization—How to Pack Data
7.5. Son of Data Encapsulation
7.6. Broadcast Packets—Hello, World!
8. Common Questions
9. Man Pages
9.1. aacccceepptt(())
9.2. bbiinndd(())
9.3. ccoonnnneecctt(())
9.4. cclloossee(())
9.5. ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()), ffrreeeeaaddddrriinnffoo(()), ggaaii__ssttrreerrrroorr(())
9.6. ggeetthhoossttnnaammee(())
9.7. ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()), ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(())
9.8. ggeettnnaammeeiinnffoo(())
9.9. ggeettppeeeerrnnaammee(())
9.10. errno
9.11. ffccnnttll(())
9.12. hhttoonnss(()), hhttoonnll(()), nnttoohhss(()), nnttoohhll(())
9.13. iinneett__nnttooaa(()), iinneett__aattoonn(()), iinneett__aaddddrr
9.14. iinneett__nnttoopp(()), iinneett__ppttoonn(())
9.15. lliisstteenn(())
9.16. ppeerrrroorr(()), ssttrreerrrroorr(())
9.17. ppoollll(())
9.18. rreeccvv(()), rreeccvvffrroomm(())
9.19. sseelleecctt(())
9.20. sseettssoocckkoopptt(()), ggeettssoocckkoopptt(())
9.21. sseenndd(()), sseennddttoo(())
9.22. sshhuuttddoowwnn(())
9.23. ssoocckkeett(())
9.24. struct sockaddr and pals
10. More References
10.1. Books
10.2. Web References
10.3. RFCs
Index

1. Intro
Hey! Socket programming got you down? Is this stuff just a little too difficult to
figure out from the man pages? You want to do cool Internet programming, but
you don't have time to wade through a gob of structs trying to figure out if you
have to call bbiinndd(()) before you ccoonnnneecctt(()), etc., etc.

Well, guess what! I've already done this nasty business, and I'm dying to share
the information with everyone! You've come to the right place. This document
should give the average competent C programmer the edge s/he needs to get a
grip on this networking noise.

And check it out: I've finally caught up with the future (just in the nick of time,
too!) and have updated the Guide for IPv6! Enjoy!

1.1. Audience

This document has been written as a tutorial, not a complete reference. It is

probably at its best when read by individuals who are just starting out with
socket programming and are looking for a foothold. It is certainly not the
complete and total guide to sockets programming, by any means.

Hopefully, though, it'll be just enough for those man pages to start making
sense... :-)

1.2. Platform and Compiler

The code contained within this document was compiled on a Linux PC using
Gnu's gcc compiler. It should, however, build on just about any platform that uses
gcc. Naturally, this doesn't apply if you're programming for Windows—see the
section on Windows programming, below.

1.3. Official Homepage and Books For Sale

This official location of this document is http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/.

There you will also find example code and translations of the guide into various
languages.

To buy nicely bound print copies (some call them "books"), visit
http://beej.us/guide/url/bgbuy. I'll appreciate the purchase because it
helps sustain my document-writing lifestyle!

1.4. Note for Solaris/SunOS Programmers

When compiling for Solaris or SunOS, you need to specify some extra
command-line switches for linking in the proper libraries. In order to do this,
simply add "-lnsl -lsocket -lresolv" to the end of the compile command,
like so:

$ cc -o server server.c -lnsl -lsocket -lresolv

If you still get errors, you could try further adding a "-lxnet" to the end of that
command line. I don't know what that does, exactly, but some people seem to
need it.
Another place that you might find problems is in the call to sseettssoocckkoopptt(()). The
prototype differs from that on my Linux box, so instead of:

int yes=1;

enter this:

char yes='1';

As I don't have a Sun box, I haven't tested any of the above information—it's just
what people have told me through email.

1.5. Note for Windows Programmers

At this point in the guide, historically, I've done a bit of bagging on Windows,
simply due to the fact that I don't like it very much. But I should really be fair and
tell you that Windows has a huge install base and is obviously a perfectly fine
operating system.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and in this case, I believe it to be
true. (Or maybe it's age.) But what I can say is that after a decade-plus of not
using Microsoft OSes for my personal work, I'm much happier! As such, I can sit
back and safely say, "Sure, feel free to use Windows!" ...Ok yes, it does make me
grit my teeth to say that.

So I still encourage you to try Linux, BSD, or some flavor of Unix, instead.

But people like what they like, and you Windows folk will be pleased to know that
this information is generally applicable to you guys, with a few minor changes, if
any.

One cool thing you can do is install Cygwin, which is a collection of Unix tools for
Windows. I've heard on the grapevine that doing so allows all these programs to
compile unmodified.

But some of you might want to do things the Pure Windows Way. That's very
gutsy of you, and this is what you have to do: run out and get Unix immediately!
No, no—I'm kidding. I'm supposed to be Windows-friendly(er) these days...

This is what you'll have to do (unless you install Cygwin!): first, ignore pretty
much all of the system header files I mention in here. All you need to include is:

#include <winsock.h>

Wait! You also have to make a call to WWSSAASSttaarrttuupp(()) before doing anything else
with the sockets library. The code to do that looks something like this:

#include <winsock.h>

{
WSADATA wsaData; // if this doesn't work
//WSAData wsaData; // then try this instead
 // MAKEWORD(1,1) for Winsock 1.1, MAKEWORD(2,0) for
Winsock 2.0:

if (WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(1,1), &wsaData) != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "WSAStartup failed.\n");
exit(1);
}

You also have to tell your compiler to link in the Winsock library, usually called
wsock32.lib or winsock32.lib, or ws2_32.lib for Winsock 2.0. Under
VC++, this can be done through the Project menu, under Settings.... Click
the Link tab, and look for the box titled "Object/library modules". Add
"wsock32.lib" (or whichever lib is your preference) to that list.

Or so I hear.

Finally, you need to call WWSSAACClleeaannuupp(()) when you're all through with the sockets
library. See your online help for details.

Once you do that, the rest of the examples in this tutorial should generally apply,
with a few exceptions. For one thing, you can't use cclloossee(()) to close a
socket—you need to use cclloosseessoocckkeett(()), instead. Also, sseelleecctt(()) only works
with socket descriptors, not file descriptors (like 0 for stdin).

There is also a socket class that you can use, CSocket. Check your compilers
help pages for more information.

To get more information about Winsock, read the Winsock FAQ and go from there.

Finally, I hear that Windows has no ffoorrkk(()) system call which is, unfortunately,
used in some of my examples. Maybe you have to link in a POSIX library or
something to get it to work, or you can use CCrreeaatteePPrroocceessss(()) instead. ffoorrkk(())
takes no arguments, and CCrreeaatteePPrroocceessss(()) takes about 48 billion arguments.
If you're not up to that, the CCrreeaatteeTThhrreeaadd(()) is a little easier to
digest...unfortunately a discussion about multithreading is beyond the scope of
this document. I can only talk about so much, you know!

1.6. Email Policy

I'm generally available to help out with email questions so feel free to write in,
but I can't guarantee a response. I lead a pretty busy life and there are times
when I just can't answer a question you have. When that's the case, I usually just
delete the message. It's nothing personal; I just won't ever have the time to give
the detailed answer you require.

As a rule, the more complex the question, the less likely I am to respond. If you
can narrow down your question before mailing it and be sure to include any
pertinent information (like platform, compiler, error messages you're getting, and
anything else you think might help me troubleshoot), you're much more likely to
get a response. For more pointers, read ESR's document, How To Ask Questions
The Smart Way.
If you don't get a response, hack on it some more, try to find the answer, and if
it's still elusive, then write me again with the information you've found and
hopefully it will be enough for me to help out.

Now that I've badgered you about how to write and not write me, I'd just like to
let you know that I fully appreciate all the praise the guide has received over the
years. It's a real morale boost, and it gladdens me to hear that it is being used
for good! :-) Thank you!

1.7. Mirroring

You are more than welcome to mirror this site, whether publicly or privately. If
you publicly mirror the site and want me to link to it from the main page, drop me
a line at beej@beej.us.

1.8. Note for Translators

If you want to translate the guide into another language, write me at

beej@beej.us and I'll link to your translation from the main page. Feel free to
add your name and contact info to the translation.

Please note the license restrictions in the Copyright and Distribution section,
below.

If you want me to host the translation, just ask. I'll also link to it if you want to
host it; either way is fine.

1.9. Copyright and Distribution

Beej's Guide to Network Programming is Copyright © 2012 Brian "Beej

Jorgensen" Hall.

With specific exceptions for source code and translations, below, this work is
licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial- No Derivative
Works 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter
to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California,
94105, USA.

One specific exception to the "No Derivative Works" portion of the license is as
follows: this guide may be freely translated into any language, provided the
translation is accurate, and the guide is reprinted in its entirety. The same license
restrictions apply to the translation as to the original guide. The translation may
also include the name and contact information for the translator.

The C source code presented in this document is hereby granted to the public
domain, and is completely free of any license restriction.

Educators are freely encouraged to recommend or supply copies of this guide to

their students.

Contact beej@beej.us for more information.

2. What is a socket?

You hear talk of "sockets" all the time, and perhaps you are wondering just what
they are exactly. Well, they're this: a way to speak to other programs using
standard Unix file descriptors.

What?

Ok—you may have heard some Unix hacker state, "Jeez, everything in Unix is a
file!" What that person may have been talking about is the fact that when Unix
programs do any sort of I/O, they do it by reading or writing to a file descriptor. A
file descriptor is simply an integer associated with an open file. But (and here's
the catch), that file can be a network connection, a FIFO, a pipe, a terminal, a real
on-the-disk file, or just about anything else. Everything in Unix is a file! So when
you want to communicate with another program over the Internet you're gonna
do it through a file descriptor, you'd better believe it.

"Where do I get this file descriptor for network communication, Mr. Smarty-
Pants?" is probably the last question on your mind right now, but I'm going to
answer it anyway: You make a call to the ssoocckkeett(()) system routine. It returns the
socket descriptor, and you communicate through it using the specialized sseenndd(())
and rreeccvv(()) (man send, man recv) socket calls.

"But, hey!" you might be exclaiming right about now. "If it's a file descriptor, why
in the name of Neptune can't I just use the normal rreeaadd(()) and wwrriittee(()) calls to
communicate through the socket?" The short answer is, "You can!" The longer
answer is, "You can, but sseenndd(()) and rreeccvv(()) offer much greater control over
your data transmission."

What next? How about this: there are all kinds of sockets. There are DARPA
Internet addresses (Internet Sockets), path names on a local node (Unix
Sockets), CCITT X.25 addresses (X.25 Sockets that you can safely ignore), and
probably many others depending on which Unix flavor you run. This document
deals only with the first: Internet Sockets.

2.1. Two Types of Internet Sockets

What's this? There are two types of Internet sockets? Yes. Well, no. I'm lying.
There are more, but I didn't want to scare you. I'm only going to talk about two
types here. Except for this sentence, where I'm going to tell you that "Raw
Sockets" are also very powerful and you should look them up.

All right, already. What are the two types? One is "Stream Sockets"; the other is
"Datagram Sockets", which may hereafter be referred to as "SOCK_STREAM" and
"SOCK_DGRAM", respectively. Datagram sockets are sometimes called
"connectionless sockets". (Though they can be ccoonnnneecctt(())'d if you really want.
See connect(), below.)

Stream sockets are reliable two-way connected communication streams. If you

output two items into the socket in the order "1, 2", they will arrive in the order
"1, 2" at the opposite end. They will also be error-free. I'm so certain, in fact,
they will be error-free, that I'm just going to put my fingers in my ears and chant
la la la la if anyone tries to claim otherwise.

What uses stream sockets? Well, you may have heard of the telnet application,
yes? It uses stream sockets. All the characters you type need to arrive in the
same order you type them, right? Also, web browsers use the HTTP protocol
which uses stream sockets to get pages. Indeed, if you telnet to a web site on
port 80, and type "GET / HTTP/1.0" and hit RETURN twice, it'll dump the
HTML back at you!

How do stream sockets achieve this high level of data transmission quality? They
use a protocol called "The Transmission Control Protocol", otherwise known as
"TCP" (see RFC 793 for extremely detailed info on TCP.) TCP makes sure your
data arrives sequentially and error-free. You may have heard "TCP" before as the
better half of "TCP/IP" where "IP" stands for "Internet Protocol" (see RFC 791.)
IP deals primarily with Internet routing and is not generally responsible for data
integrity.

Cool. What about Datagram sockets? Why are they called connectionless? What
is the deal, here, anyway? Why are they unreliable? Well, here are some facts: if
you send a datagram, it may arrive. It may arrive out of order. If it arrives, the
data within the packet will be error-free.

Datagram sockets also use IP for routing, but they don't use TCP; they use the
"User Datagram Protocol", or "UDP" (see RFC 768.)

Why are they connectionless? Well, basically, it's because you don't have to
maintain an open connection as you do with stream sockets. You just build a
packet, slap an IP header on it with destination information, and send it out. No
connection needed. They are generally used either when a TCP stack is
unavailable or when a few dropped packets here and there don't mean the end of
the Universe. Sample applications: tftp (trivial file transfer protocol, a little
brother to FTP), dhcpcd (a DHCP client), multiplayer games, streaming audio,
video conferencing, etc.

"Wait a minute! tftp and dhcpcd are used to transfer binary applications from one
host to another! Data can't be lost if you expect the application to work when it
arrives! What kind of dark magic is this?"

Well, my human friend, tftp and similar programs have their own protocol on top
of UDP. For example, the tftp protocol says that for each packet that gets sent,
the recipient has to send back a packet that says, "I got it!" (an "ACK" packet.) If
the sender of the original packet gets no reply in, say, five seconds, he'll
re-transmit the packet until he finally gets an ACK. This acknowledgment
procedure is very important when implementing reliable SOCK_DGRAM
applications.

For unreliable applications like games, audio, or video, you just ignore the
dropped packets, or perhaps try to cleverly compensate for them. (Quake players
will know the manifestation this effect by the technical term: accursed lag. The
word "accursed", in this case, represents any extremely profane utterance.)
Why would you use an unreliable underlying protocol? Two reasons: speed and
speed. It's way faster to fire-and-forget than it is to keep track of what has
arrived safely and make sure it's in order and all that. If you're sending chat
messages, TCP is great; if you're sending 40 positional updates per second of the
players in the world, maybe it doesn't matter so much if one or two get dropped,
and UDP is a good choice.

2.2. Low level Nonsense and Network Theory

Since I just mentioned layering of protocols, it's time to talk about how networks
really work, and to show some examples of how SOCK_DGRAM packets are built.
Practically, you can probably skip this section. It's good background, however.

Data Encapsulation.

Hey, kids, it's time to learn about Data Encapsulation! This is very very important.
It's so important that you might just learn about it if you take the networks
course here at Chico State ;-). Basically, it says this: a packet is born, the
packet is wrapped ("encapsulated") in a header (and rarely a footer) by the first
protocol (say, the TFTP protocol), then the whole thing (TFTP header included) is
encapsulated again by the next protocol (say, UDP), then again by the next (IP),
then again by the final protocol on the hardware (physical) layer (say, Ethernet).

When another computer receives the packet, the hardware strips the Ethernet
header, the kernel strips the IP and UDP headers, the TFTP program strips the
TFTP header, and it finally has the data.

Now I can finally talk about the infamous Layered Network Model (aka
"ISO/OSI"). This Network Model describes a system of network functionality that
has many advantages over other models. For instance, you can write sockets
programs that are exactly the same without caring how the data is physically
transmitted (serial, thin Ethernet, AUI, whatever) because programs on lower
levels deal with it for you. The actual network hardware and topology is
transparent to the socket programmer.

Without any further ado, I'll present the layers of the full-blown model.
Remember this for network class exams:

Application
Presentation
Session
Transport
Network
Data Link
Physical

The Physical Layer is the hardware (serial, Ethernet, etc.). The Application Layer
is just about as far from the physical layer as you can imagine—it's the place
where users interact with the network.

Now, this model is so general you could probably use it as an automobile repair
guide if you really wanted to. A layered model more consistent with Unix might
be:

Application Layer (telnet, ftp, etc.)

Host-to-Host Transport Layer (TCP, UDP)
Internet Layer (IP and routing)
Network Access Layer (Ethernet, wi-fi, or whatever)

At this point in time, you can probably see how these layers correspond to the
encapsulation of the original data.

See how much work there is in building a simple packet? Jeez! And you have to
type in the packet headers yourself using "cat"! Just kidding. All you have to do
for stream sockets is sseenndd(()) the data out. All you have to do for datagram
sockets is encapsulate the packet in the method of your choosing and sseennddttoo(())
it out. The kernel builds the Transport Layer and Internet Layer on for you and
the hardware does the Network Access Layer. Ah, modern technology.

So ends our brief foray into network theory. Oh yes, I forgot to tell you everything
I wanted to say about routing: nothing! That's right, I'm not going to talk about it
at all. The router strips the packet to the IP header, consults its routing table,
blah blah blah. Check out the IP RFC if you really really care. If you never learn
about it, well, you'll live.

3. IP Addresses, structs, and Data Munging

Here's the part of the game where we get to talk code for a change.

But first, let's discuss more non-code! Yay! First I want to talk about IP addresses
and ports for just a tad so we have that sorted out. Then we'll talk about how the
sockets API stores and manipulates IP addresses and other data.

3.1. IP Addresses, versions 4 and 6

In the good old days back when Ben Kenobi was still called Obi Wan Kenobi, there
was a wonderful network routing system called The Internet Protocol Version 4,
also called IPv4. It had addresses made up of four bytes (A.K.A. four "octets"),
and was commonly written in "dots and numbers" form, like so: 192.0.2.111.

You've probably seen it around.

In fact, as of this writing, virtually every site on the Internet uses IPv4.

Everyone, including Obi Wan, was happy. Things were great, until some naysayer
by the name of Vint Cerf warned everyone that we were about to run out of IPv4
addresses!

(Besides warning everyone of the Coming IPv4 Apocalypse Of Doom And Gloom,
Vint Cerf is also well-known for being The Father Of The Internet. So I really am
in no position to second-guess his judgment.)
Run out of addresses? How could this be? I mean, there are like billions of IP
addresses in a 32-bit IPv4 address. Do we really have billions of computers out
there?

Yes.

Also, in the beginning, when there were only a few computers and everyone
thought a billion was an impossibly large number, some big organizations were
generously allocated millions of IP addresses for their own use. (Such as Xerox,
MIT, Ford, HP, IBM, GE, AT&T, and some little company called Apple, to name a
few.)

In fact, if it weren't for several stopgap measures, we would have run out a long
time ago.

But now we're living in an era where we're talking about every human having an
IP address, every computer, every calculator, every phone, every parking meter,
and (why not) every puppy dog, as well.

And so, IPv6 was born. Since Vint Cerf is probably immortal (even if his physical
form should pass on, heaven forbid, he is probably already existing as some kind
of hyper-intelligent ELIZA program out in the depths of the Internet2), no one
wants to have to hear him say again "I told you so" if we don't have enough
addresses in the next version of the Internet Protocol.

What does this suggest to you?

That we need a lot more addresses. That we need not just twice as many
addresses, not a billion times as many, not a thousand trillion times as many, but
79 MILLION BILLION TRILLION times as many possible addresses! That'll show
'em!

You're saying, "Beej, is that true? I have every reason to disbelieve large
numbers." Well, the difference between 32 bits and 128 bits might not sound like
a lot; it's only 96 more bits, right? But remember, we're talking powers here: 32
bits represents some 4 billion numbers (2 32), while 128 bits represents about
340 trillion trillion trillion numbers (for real, 2 128). That's like a million IPv4
Internets for every single star in the Universe.

Forget this dots-and-numbers look of IPv4, too; now we've got a hexadecimal
representation, with each two-byte chunk separated by a colon, like this:
2001:0db8:c9d2:aee5:73e3:934a:a5ae:9551.

That's not all! Lots of times, you'll have an IP address with lots of zeros in it, and
you can compress them between two colons. And you can leave off leading zeros
for each byte pair. For instance, each of these pairs of addresses are equivalent:

2001:0db8:c9d2:0012:0000:0000:0000:0051
2001:db8:c9d2:12::51

2001:0db8:ab00:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000
2001:db8:ab00::
0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001
::1

The address ::1 is the loopback address. It always means "this machine I'm
running on now". In IPv4, the loopback address is 127.0.0.1.

Finally, there's an IPv4-compatibility mode for IPv6 addresses that you might
come across. If you want, for example, to represent the IPv4 address 192.0.2.33
as an IPv6 address, you use the following notation: "::ffff:192.0.2.33".

We're talking serious fun.

In fact, it's such serious fun, that the Creators of IPv6 have quite cavalierly
lopped off trillions and trillions of addresses for reserved use, but we have so
many, frankly, who's even counting anymore? There are plenty left over for every
man, woman, child, puppy, and parking meter on every planet in the galaxy. And
believe me, every planet in the galaxy has parking meters. You know it's true.

3.1.1. Subnets

For organizational reasons, it's sometimes convenient to declare that "this first
part of this IP address up through this bit is the network portion of the IP
address, and the remainder is the host portion.

For instance, with IPv4, you might have 192.0.2.12, and we could say that the
first three bytes are the network and the last byte was the host. Or, put another
way, we're talking about host 12 on network 192.0.2.0 (see how we zero out
the byte that was the host.)

And now for more outdated information! Ready? In the Ancient Times, there were
"classes" of subnets, where the first one, two, or three bytes of the address was
the network part. If you were lucky enough to have one byte for the network and
three for the host, you could have 24 bits-worth of hosts on your network (24
million or so). That was a "Class A" network. On the opposite end was a "Class
C", with three bytes of network, and one byte of host (256 hosts, minus a couple
that were reserved.)

So as you can see, there were just a few Class As, a huge pile of Class Cs, and
some Class Bs in the middle.

The network portion of the IP address is described by something called the

netmask, which you bitwise-AND with the IP address to get the network number
out of it. The netmask usually looks something like 255.255.255.0. (E.g. with
that netmask, if your IP is 192.0.2.12, then your network is 192.0.2.12 AND
255.255.255.0 which gives 192.0.2.0.)

Unfortunately, it turned out that this wasn't fine-grained enough for the eventual
needs of the Internet; we were running out of Class C networks quite quickly, and
we were most definitely out of Class As, so don't even bother to ask. To remedy
this, The Powers That Be allowed for the netmask to be an arbitrary number of
bits, not just 8, 16, or 24. So you might have a netmask of, say
255.255.255.252, which is 30 bits of network, and 2 bits of host allowing for
four hosts on the network. (Note that the netmask is ALWAYS a bunch of 1-bits
followed by a bunch of 0-bits.)

But it's a bit unwieldy to use a big string of numbers like 255.192.0.0 as a
netmask. First of all, people don't have an intuitive idea of how many bits that is,
and secondly, it's really not compact. So the New Style came along, and it's much
nicer. You just put a slash after the IP address, and then follow that by the
number of network bits in decimal. Like this: 192.0.2.12/30.

Or, for IPv6, something like this: 2001:db8::/32 or

2001:db8:5413:4028::9db9/64.

3.1.2. Port Numbers

If you'll kindly remember, I presented you earlier with the Layered Network Model
which had the Internet Layer (IP) split off from the Host-to-Host Transport Layer
(TCP and UDP). Get up to speed on that before the next paragraph.

Turns out that besides an IP address (used by the IP layer), there is another
address that is used by TCP (stream sockets) and, coincidentally, by UDP
(datagram sockets). It is the port number. It's a 16-bit number that's like the
local address for the connection.

Think of the IP address as the street address of a hotel, and the port number as
the room number. That's a decent analogy; maybe later I'll come up with one
involving the automobile industry.

Say you want to have a computer that handles incoming mail AND web
services—how do you differentiate between the two on a computer with a single
IP address?

Well, different services on the Internet have different well-known port numbers.
You can see them all in the Big IANA Port List or, if you're on a Unix box, in your
/etc/services file. HTTP (the web) is port 80, telnet is port 23, SMTP is port
25, the game DOOM used port 666, etc. and so on. Ports under 1024 are often
considered special, and usually require special OS privileges to use.

And that's about it!

3.2. Byte Order

By Order of the Realm! There shall be two byte orderings, hereafter to be known
as Lame and Magnificent!

I joke, but one really is better than the other. :-)

There really is no easy way to say this, so I'll just blurt it out: your computer
might have been storing bytes in reverse order behind your back. I know! No one
wanted to have to tell you.
The thing is, everyone in the Internet world has generally agreed that if you want
to represent the two-byte hex number, say b34f, you'll store it in two sequential
bytes b3 followed by 4f. Makes sense, and, as Wilford Brimley would tell you, it's
the Right Thing To Do. This number, stored with the big end first, is called
Big-Endian.

Unfortunately, a few computers scattered here and there throughout the world,
namely anything with an Intel or Intel-compatible processor, store the bytes
reversed, so b34f would be stored in memory as the sequential bytes 4f
followed by b3. This storage method is called Little-Endian.

But wait, I'm not done with terminology yet! The more-sane Big-Endian is also
called Network Byte Order because that's the order us network types like.

Your computer stores numbers in Host Byte Order. If it's an Intel 80x86, Host
Byte Order is Little-Endian. If it's a Motorola 68k, Host Byte Order is Big-Endian.
If it's a PowerPC, Host Byte Order is... well, it depends!

A lot of times when you're building packets or filling out data structures you'll
need to make sure your two- and four-byte numbers are in Network Byte Order.
But how can you do this if you don't know the native Host Byte Order?

Good news! You just get to assume the Host Byte Order isn't right, and you
always run the value through a function to set it to Network Byte Order. The
function will do the magic conversion if it has to, and this way your code is
portable to machines of differing endianness.

All righty. There are two types of numbers that you can convert: short (two
bytes) and long (four bytes). These functions work for the unsigned variations
as well. Say you want to convert a short from Host Byte Order to Network Byte
Order. Start with "h" for "host", follow it with "to", then "n" for "network", and "s"
for "short": h-to-n-s, or hhttoonnss(()) (read: "Host to Network Short").

It's almost too easy...

You can use every combination of "n", "h", "s", and "l" you want, not counting
the really stupid ones. For example, there is NOT a ssttoollhh(()) ("Short to Long
Host") function—not at this party, anyway. But there are:

hhttoonnss(()) hhost ttoo nnetwork sshort

hhttoonnll(()) hhost ttoo nnetwork llong

nnttoohhss(()) nnetwork ttoo hhost sshort

nnttoohhll(()) nnetwork ttoo hhost llong

Basically, you'll want to convert the numbers to Network Byte Order before they
go out on the wire, and convert them to Host Byte Order as they come in off the
wire.

I don't know of a 64-bit variant, sorry. And if you want to do floating point, check
out the section on Serialization, far below.

Assume the numbers in this document are in Host Byte Order unless I say
otherwise.

3.3. structs

Well, we're finally here. It's time to talk about programming. In this section, I'll
cover various data types used by the sockets interface, since some of them are a
real bear to figure out.

First the easy one: a socket descriptor. A socket descriptor is the following type:

int

Just a regular int.

Things get weird from here, so just read through and bear with me.

My First StructTM—struct addrinfo. This structure is a more recent invention,

and is used to prep the socket address structures for subsequent use. It's also
used in host name lookups, and service name lookups. That'll make more sense
later when we get to actual usage, but just know for now that it's one of the first
things you'll call when making a connection.

struct addrinfo {
int ai_flags; // AI_PASSIVE,
AI_CANONNAME, etc.
int ai_family; // AF_INET, AF_INET6,
AF_UNSPEC
int ai_socktype; // SOCK_STREAM, SOCK_DGRAM
int ai_protocol; // use 0 for "any"
size_t ai_addrlen; // size of ai_addr in
bytes
struct sockaddr *ai_addr; // struct sockaddr_in or
_in6
char *ai_canonname; // full canonical hostname

struct addrinfo *ai_next; // linked list, next node

};

You'll load this struct up a bit, and then call ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()). It'll return a
pointer to a new linked list of these structures filled out with all the goodies you
need.

You can force it to use IPv4 or IPv6 in the ai_family field, or leave it as
AF_UNSPEC to use whatever. This is cool because your code can be IP version-
agnostic.
Note that this is a linked list: ai_next points at the next element—there could
be several results for you to choose from. I'd use the first result that worked, but
you might have different business needs; I don't know everything, man!

You'll see that the ai_addr field in the struct addrinfo is a pointer to a
struct sockaddr. This is where we start getting into the nitty-gritty details of
what's inside an IP address structure.

You might not usually need to write to these structures; oftentimes, a call to
ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) to fill out your struct addrinfo for you is all you'll need.
You will, however, have to peer inside these structs to get the values out, so I'm
presenting them here.

(Also, all the code written before struct addrinfo was invented packed all
this stuff by hand, so you'll see a lot of IPv4 code out in the wild that does exactly
that. You know, in old versions of this guide and so on.)

Some structs are IPv4, some are IPv6, and some are both. I'll make notes of
which are what.

Anyway, the struct sockaddr holds socket address information for many
types of sockets.

struct sockaddr {
unsigned short sa_family; // address family, AF_xxx
char sa_data[14]; // 14 bytes of protocol
address
};

sa_family can be a variety of things, but it'll be AF_INET (IPv4) or AF_INET6

(IPv6) for everything we do in this document. sa_data contains a destination
address and port number for the socket. This is rather unwieldy since you don't
want to tediously pack the address in the sa_data by hand.

To deal with struct sockaddr, programmers created a parallel structure:

struct sockaddr_in ("in" for "Internet") to be used with IPv4.

And this is the important bit: a pointer to a struct sockaddr_in can be cast
to a pointer to a struct sockaddr and vice-versa. So even though ccoonnnneecctt(())
wants a struct sockaddr*, you can still use a struct sockaddr_in and
cast it at the last minute!

// (IPv4 only--see struct sockaddr_in6 for IPv6)

struct sockaddr_in {
short int sin_family; // Address family,
AF_INET
unsigned short int sin_port; // Port number
struct in_addr sin_addr; // Internet address
unsigned char sin_zero[8]; // Same size as struct
sockaddr
};
This structure makes it easy to reference elements of the socket address. Note
that sin_zero (which is included to pad the structure to the length of a
struct sockaddr) should be set to all zeros with the function mmeemmsseett(()). Also,
notice that sin_family corresponds to sa_family in a struct sockaddr
and should be set to "AF_INET". Finally, the sin_port must be in Network Byte
Order (by using hhttoonnss(())!)

Let's dig deeper! You see the sin_addr field is a struct in_addr. What is that
thing? Well, not to be overly dramatic, but it's one of the scariest unions of all
time:

// (IPv4 only--see struct in6_addr for IPv6)

// Internet address (a structure for historical reasons)

struct in_addr {
uint32_t s_addr; // that's a 32-bit int (4 bytes)
};

Whoa! Well, it used to be a union, but now those days seem to be gone. Good
riddance. So if you have declared ina to be of type struct sockaddr_in, then
ina.sin_addr.s_addr references the 4-byte IP address (in Network Byte
Order). Note that even if your system still uses the God-awful union for
struct in_addr, you can still reference the 4-byte IP address in exactly the
same way as I did above (this due to #defines.)

What about IPv6? Similar structs exist for it, as well:

// (IPv6 only--see struct sockaddr_in and struct in_addr for

IPv4)

struct sockaddr_in6 {
u_int16_t sin6_family; // address family,
AF_INET6
u_int16_t sin6_port; // port number, Network
Byte Order
u_int32_t sin6_flowinfo; // IPv6 flow information
struct in6_addr sin6_addr; // IPv6 address
u_int32_t sin6_scope_id; // Scope ID
};

struct in6_addr {
unsigned char s6_addr[16]; // IPv6 address
};

Note that IPv6 has an IPv6 address and a port number, just like IPv4 has an IPv4
address and a port number.

Also note that I'm not going to talk about the IPv6 flow information or Scope ID
fields for the moment... this is just a starter guide. :-)

Last but not least, here is another simple structure,

struct sockaddr_storage that is designed to be large enough to hold both
IPv4 and IPv6 structures. (See, for some calls, sometimes you don't know in
advance if it's going to fill out your struct sockaddr with an IPv4 or IPv6
address. So you pass in this parallel structure, very similar to
struct sockaddr except larger, and then cast it to the type you need:

struct sockaddr_storage {
sa_family_t ss_family; // address family

// all this is padding, implementation specific, ignore

it:
char __ss_pad1[_SS_PAD1SIZE];
int64_t __ss_align;
char __ss_pad2[_SS_PAD2SIZE];
};

What's important is that you can see the address family in the ss_family
field—check this to see if it's AF_INET or AF_INET6 (for IPv4 or IPv6). Then you
can cast it to a struct sockaddr_in or struct sockaddr_in6 if you
wanna.

3.4. IP Addresses, Part Deux

Fortunately for you, there are a bunch of functions that allow you to manipulate
IP addresses. No need to figure them out by hand and stuff them in a long with
the << operator.

First, let's say you have a struct sockaddr_in ina, and you have an IP
address "10.12.110.57" or "2001:db8:63b3:1::3490" that you want to
store into it. The function you want to use, iinneett__ppttoonn(()), converts an IP
address in numbers-and-dots notation into either a struct in_addr or a
struct in6_addr depending on whether you specify AF_INET or AF_INET6.
("pton" stands for "presentation to network"—you can call it "printable to
network" if that's easier to remember.) The conversion can be made as follows:

struct sockaddr_in sa; // IPv4

struct sockaddr_in6 sa6; // IPv6

inet_pton(AF_INET, "192.0.2.1", &(sa.sin_addr)); // IPv4

inet_pton(AF_INET6, "2001:db8:63b3:1::3490",
&(sa6.sin6_addr)); // IPv6

(Quick note: the old way of doing things used a function called iinneett__aaddddrr(()) or
another function called iinneett__aattoonn(()); these are now obsolete and don't work
with IPv6.)

Now, the above code snippet isn't very robust because there is no error checking.
See, iinneett__ppttoonn(()) returns -1 on error, or 0 if the address is messed up. So
check to make sure the result is greater than 0 before using!

All right, now you can convert string IP addresses to their binary representations.
What about the other way around? What if you have a struct in_addr and you
want to print it in numbers-and-dots notation? (Or a struct in6_addr that
you want in, uh, "hex-and-colons" notation.) In this case, you'll want to use the
function iinneett__nnttoopp(()) ("ntop" means "network to presentation"—you can call it
"network to printable" if that's easier to remember), like this:

// IPv4:

char ip4[INET_ADDRSTRLEN]; // space to hold the IPv4 string

struct sockaddr_in sa; // pretend this is loaded with
something

inet_ntop(AF_INET, &(sa.sin_addr), ip4, INET_ADDRSTRLEN);

printf("The IPv4 address is: %s\n", ip4);

// IPv6:

char ip6[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN]; // space to hold the IPv6 string

struct sockaddr_in6 sa6; // pretend this is loaded with
something

inet_ntop(AF_INET6, &(sa6.sin6_addr), ip6, INET6_ADDRSTRLEN);

printf("The address is: %s\n", ip6);

When you call it, you'll pass the address type (IPv4 or IPv6), the address, a
pointer to a string to hold the result, and the maximum length of that string. (Two
macros conveniently hold the size of the string you'll need to hold the largest
IPv4 or IPv6 address: INET_ADDRSTRLEN and INET6_ADDRSTRLEN.)

(Another quick note to mention once again the old way of doing things: the
historical function to do this conversion was called iinneett__nnttooaa(()). It's also
obsolete and won't work with IPv6.)

Lastly, these functions only work with numeric IP addresses—they won't do any
nameserver DNS lookup on a hostname, like "www.example.com". You will use
ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) to do that, as you'll see later on.

3.4.1. Private (Or Disconnected) Networks

Lots of places have a firewall that hides the network from the rest of the world for
their own protection. And often times, the firewall translates "internal" IP
addresses to "external" (that everyone else in the world knows) IP addresses
using a process called Network Address Translation, or NAT.

Are you getting nervous yet? "Where's he going with all this weird stuff?"

Well, relax and buy yourself a non-alcoholic (or alcoholic) drink, because as a
beginner, you don't even have to worry about NAT, since it's done for you
transparently. But I wanted to talk about the network behind the firewall in case
you started getting confused by the network numbers you were seeing.

For instance, I have a firewall at home. I have two static IPv4 addresses allocated
to me by the DSL company, and yet I have seven computers on the network. How
is this possible? Two computers can't share the same IP address, or else the data
 wouldn't know which one to go to!

The answer is: they don't share the same IP addresses. They are on a private
network with 24 million IP addresses allocated to it. They are all just for me. Well,
all for me as far as anyone else is concerned. Here's what's happening:

If I log into a remote computer, it tells me I'm logged in from 192.0.2.33 which is
the public IP address my ISP has provided to me. But if I ask my local computer
what it's IP address is, it says 10.0.0.5. Who is translating the IP address from
one to the other? That's right, the firewall! It's doing NAT!

10.x.x.x is one of a few reserved networks that are only to be used either on fully
disconnected networks, or on networks that are behind firewalls. The details of
which private network numbers are available for you to use are outlined in RFC
1918, but some common ones you'll see are 10.x.x.x and 192.168.x.x, where x is
0-255, generally. Less common is 172.y.x.x, where y goes between 16 and 31.

Networks behind a NATing firewall don't need to be on one of these reserved

networks, but they commonly are.

(Fun fact! My external IP address isn't really 192.0.2.33. The 192.0.2.x network is
reserved for make-believe "real" IP addresses to be used in documentation, just
like this guide! Wowzers!)

IPv6 has private networks, too, in a sense. They'll start with fdxx: (or maybe in
the future fcXX:), as per RFC 4193. NAT and IPv6 don't generally mix, however
(unless you're doing the IPv6 to IPv4 gateway thing which is beyond the scope of
this document)—in theory you'll have so many addresses at your disposal that
you won't need to use NAT any longer. But if you want to allocate addresses for
yourself on a network that won't route outside, this is how to do it.

4. Jumping from IPv4 to IPv6

But I just want to know what to change in my code to get it going with IPv6! Tell
me now!

Ok! Ok!

Almost everything in here is something I've gone over, above, but it's the short
version for the impatient. (Of course, there is more than this, but this is what
applies to the guide.)

1. First of all, try to use ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) to get all the struct sockaddr info,
instead of packing the structures by hand. This will keep you IP version-agnostic,
and will eliminate many of the subsequent steps.
2. Any place that you find you're hard-coding anything related to the IP version, try
to wrap up in a helper function.
3. Change AF_INET to AF_INET6.
4. Change PF_INET to PF_INET6.
 5. Change INADDR_ANY assignments to in6addr_any assignments, which are
slightly different:

struct sockaddr_in sa;

struct sockaddr_in6 sa6;

sa.sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY; // use my IPv4 address

sa6.sin6_addr = in6addr_any; // use my IPv6 address

Also, the value IN6ADDR_ANY_INIT can be used as an initializer when the

struct in6_addr is declared, like so:

struct in6_addr ia6 = IN6ADDR_ANY_INIT;

6. Instead of struct sockaddr_in use struct sockaddr_in6, being sure to

add "6" to the fields as appropriate (see structs, above). There is no
sin6_zero field.
7. Instead of struct in_addr use struct in6_addr, being sure to add "6" to
the fields as appropriate (see structs, above).
8. Instead of iinneett__aattoonn(()) or iinneett__aaddddrr(()), use iinneett__ppttoonn(()).
9. Instead of iinneett__nnttooaa(()), use iinneett__nnttoopp(()).
10. Instead of ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()), use the superior ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()).
11. Instead of ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(()), use the superior ggeettnnaammeeiinnffoo(()) (although
ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(()) can still work with IPv6).
12. INADDR_BROADCAST no longer works. Use IPv6 multicast instead.

Et voila!

5. System Calls or Bust

This is the section where we get into the system calls (and other library calls)
that allow you to access the network functionality of a Unix box, or any box that
supports the sockets API for that matter (BSD, Windows, Linux, Mac,
what-have-you.) When you call one of these functions, the kernel takes over and
does all the work for you automagically.

The place most people get stuck around here is what order to call these things in.
In that, the man pages are no use, as you've probably discovered. Well, to help
with that dreadful situation, I've tried to lay out the system calls in the following
sections in exactly (approximately) the same order that you'll need to call them in
your programs.

That, coupled with a few pieces of sample code here and there, some milk and
cookies (which I fear you will have to supply yourself), and some raw guts and
courage, and you'll be beaming data around the Internet like the Son of Jon
Postel!

(Please note that for brevity, many code snippets below do not include necessary
error checking. And they very commonly assume that the result from calls to
getaddrinfo() succeed and return a valid entry in the linked list. Both of these
situations are properly addressed in the stand-alone programs, though, so use
those as a model.)

5.1. getaddrinfo()—Prepare to launch!

This is a real workhorse of a function with a lot of options, but usage is actually
pretty simple. It helps set up the structs you need later on.

A tiny bit of history: it used to be that you would use a function called
ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()) to do DNS lookups. Then you'd load that information by
hand into a struct sockaddr_in, and use that in your calls.

This is no longer necessary, thankfully. (Nor is it desirable, if you want to write

code that works for both IPv4 and IPv6!) In these modern times, you now have
the function ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) that does all kinds of good stuff for you, including
DNS and service name lookups, and fills out the structs you need, besides!

Let's take a look!

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netdb.h>

int getaddrinfo(const char *node, // e.g.

"www.example.com" or IP
const char *service, // e.g. "http" or port
number
const struct addrinfo *hints,
struct addrinfo **res);

You give this function three input parameters, and it gives you a pointer to a
linked-list, res, of results.

The node parameter is the host name to connect to, or an IP address.

Next is the parameter service, which can be a port number, like "80", or the
name of a particular service (found in The IANA Port List or the /etc/services
file on your Unix machine) like "http" or "ftp" or "telnet" or "smtp" or whatever.

Finally, the hints parameter points to a struct addrinfo that you've already
filled out with relevant information.

Here's a sample call if you're a server who wants to listen on your host's IP
address, port 3490. Note that this doesn't actually do any listening or network
setup; it merely sets up structures we'll use later:

int status;
struct addrinfo hints;
struct addrinfo *servinfo; // will point to the results

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints); // make sure the struct is

empty
hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // don't care IPv4 or IPv6
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM; // TCP stream sockets
hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE; // fill in my IP for me

if ((status = getaddrinfo(NULL, "3490", &hints, &servinfo))

!= 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "getaddrinfo error: %s\n",
gai_strerror(status));
exit(1);
}

// servinfo now points to a linked list of 1 or more struct

addrinfos

// ... do everything until you don't need servinfo anymore

....

freeaddrinfo(servinfo); // free the linked-list

Notice that I set the ai_family to AF_UNSPEC, thereby saying that I don't care
if we use IPv4 or IPv6. You can set it to AF_INET or AF_INET6 if you want one or
the other specifically.

Also, you'll see the AI_PASSIVE flag in there; this tells ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) to
assign the address of my local host to the socket structures. This is nice because
then you don't have to hardcode it. (Or you can put a specific address in as the
first parameter to ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) where I currently have NULL, up there.)

Then we make the call. If there's an error (ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) returns non-zero),

we can print it out using the function ggaaii__ssttrreerrrroorr(()), as you see. If
everything works properly, though, servinfo will point to a linked list of
struct addrinfos, each of which contains a struct sockaddr of some kind
that we can use later! Nifty!

Finally, when we're eventually all done with the linked list that ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(())
so graciously allocated for us, we can (and should) free it all up with a call to
ffrreeeeaaddddrriinnffoo(()).

Here's a sample call if you're a client who wants to connect to a particular server,
say "www.example.net" port 3490. Again, this doesn't actually connect, but it
sets up the structures we'll use later:

int status;
struct addrinfo hints;
struct addrinfo *servinfo; // will point to the results

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints); // make sure the struct is

empty
hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // don't care IPv4 or IPv6
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM; // TCP stream sockets

// get ready to connect

status = getaddrinfo("www.example.net", "3490", &hints,
&servinfo);
// servinfo now points to a linked list of 1 or more struct
addrinfos

// etc.

I keep saying that servinfo is a linked list with all kinds of address information.
Let's write a quick demo program to show off this information. This short
program will print the IP addresses for whatever host you specify on the
command line:

/*
** showip.c -- show IP addresses for a host given on the
command line
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netdb.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])

{
struct addrinfo hints, *res, *p;
int status;
char ipstr[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];

if (argc != 2) {
fprintf(stderr,"usage: showip hostname\n");
return 1;
}

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // AF_INET or AF_INET6 to
force version
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;

if ((status = getaddrinfo(argv[1], NULL, &hints, &res))

!= 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "getaddrinfo: %s\n",
gai_strerror(status));
return 2;
}

printf("IP addresses for %s:\n\n", argv[1]);

for(p = res;p != NULL; p = p->ai_next) {

void *addr;
char *ipver;

// get the pointer to the address itself,

// different fields in IPv4 and IPv6:
if (p->ai_family == AF_INET) { // IPv4
struct sockaddr_in *ipv4 = (struct sockaddr_in
*)p->ai_addr;
 addr = &(ipv4->sin_addr);
ipver = "IPv4";
} else { // IPv6
struct sockaddr_in6 *ipv6 = (struct sockaddr_in6
*)p->ai_addr;
addr = &(ipv6->sin6_addr);
ipver = "IPv6";
}

// convert the IP to a string and print it:

inet_ntop(p->ai_family, addr, ipstr, sizeof ipstr);
printf(" %s: %s\n", ipver, ipstr);
}

freeaddrinfo(res); // free the linked list

return 0;
}

As you see, the code calls ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) on whatever you pass on the
command line, that fills out the linked list pointed to by res, and then we can
iterate over the list and print stuff out or do whatever.

(There's a little bit of ugliness there where we have to dig into the different types
of struct sockaddrs depending on the IP version. Sorry about that! I'm not
sure of a better way around it.)

Sample run! Everyone loves screenshots:

$ sshhoowwiipp wwwwww..eexxaammppllee..nneett
IP addresses for www.example.net:

IPv4: 192.0.2.88

$ sshhoowwiipp iippvv66..eexxaammppllee..ccoomm
IP addresses for ipv6.example.com:

IPv4: 192.0.2.101
IPv6: 2001:db8:8c00:22::171

Now that we have that under control, we'll use the results we get from
ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) to pass to other socket functions and, at long last, get our
network connection established! Keep reading!

5.2. socket()—Get the File Descriptor!

I guess I can put it off no longer—I have to talk about the ssoocckkeett(()) system call.
Here's the breakdown:

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int socket(int domain, int type, int protocol);

But what are these arguments? They allow you to say what kind of socket you
want (IPv4 or IPv6, stream or datagram, and TCP or UDP).

It used to be people would hardcode these values, and you can absolutely still do
that. (domain is PF_INET or PF_INET6, type is SOCK_STREAM or
SOCK_DGRAM, and protocol can be set to 0 to choose the proper protocol for
the given type. Or you can call ggeettpprroottoobbyynnaammee(()) to look up the protocol you
want, "tcp" or "udp".)

(This PF_INET thing is a close relative of the AF_INET that you can use when
initializing the sin_family field in your struct sockaddr_in. In fact, they're
so closely related that they actually have the same value, and many programmers
will call ssoocckkeett(()) and pass AF_INET as the first argument instead of PPFF__IINNEETT.
Now, get some milk and cookies, because it's times for a story. Once upon a time,
a long time ago, it was thought that maybe a address family (what the "AF" in
"AF_INET" stands for) might support several protocols that were referred to by
their protocol family (what the "PF" in "PF_INET" stands for). That didn't
happen. And they all lived happily ever after, The End. So the most correct thing
to do is to use AF_INET in your struct sockaddr_in and PF_INET in your
call to ssoocckkeett(()).)

Anyway, enough of that. What you really want to do is use the values from the
results of the call to ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()), and feed them into ssoocckkeett(()) directly like
this:

int s;
struct addrinfo hints, *res;

// do the lookup
// [pretend we already filled out the "hints" struct]
getaddrinfo("www.example.com", "http", &hints, &res);

// [again, you should do error-checking on getaddrinfo(),

and walk
// the "res" linked list looking for valid entries instead
of just
// assuming the first one is good (like many of these
examples do.)
// See the section on client/server for real examples.]

s = socket(res->ai_family, res->ai_socktype,
res->ai_protocol);

ssoocckkeett(()) simply returns to you a socket descriptor that you can use in later
system calls, or -1 on error. The global variable errno is set to the error's value
(see the errno man page for more details, and a quick note on using errno in
multithreaded programs.)

Fine, fine, fine, but what good is this socket? The answer is that it's really no
good by itself, and you need to read on and make more system calls for it to
make any sense.

5.3. bind()—What port am I on?

Once you have a socket, you might have to associate that socket with a port on
your local machine. (This is commonly done if you're going to lliisstteenn(()) for
incoming connections on a specific port—multiplayer network games do this
when they tell you to "connect to 192.168.5.10 port 3490".) The port number is
used by the kernel to match an incoming packet to a certain process's socket
descriptor. If you're going to only be doing a ccoonnnneecctt(()) (because you're the
client, not the server), this is probably be unnecessary. Read it anyway, just for
kicks.

Here is the synopsis for the bbiinndd(()) system call:

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int bind(int sockfd, struct sockaddr *my_addr, int addrlen);

sockfd is the socket file descriptor returned by ssoocckkeett(()). my_addr is a pointer

to a struct sockaddr that contains information about your address, namely,
port and IP address. addrlen is the length in bytes of that address.

Whew. That's a bit to absorb in one chunk. Let's have an example that binds the
socket to the host the program is running on, port 3490:

struct addrinfo hints, *res;

int sockfd;

// first, load up address structs with getaddrinfo():

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // use IPv4 or IPv6, whichever
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE; // fill in my IP for me

getaddrinfo(NULL, "3490", &hints, &res);

// make a socket:

sockfd = socket(res->ai_family, res->ai_socktype,

res->ai_protocol);

// bind it to the port we passed in to getaddrinfo():

bind(sockfd, res->ai_addr, res->ai_addrlen);

By using the AI_PASSIVE flag, I'm telling the program to bind to the IP of the
host it's running on. If you want to bind to a specific local IP address, drop the
AI_PASSIVE and put an IP address in for the first argument to ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()).

bbiinndd(()) also returns -1 on error and sets errno to the error's value.

Lots of old code manually packs the struct sockaddr_in before calling
bbiinndd(()). Obviously this is IPv4-specific, but there's really nothing stopping you
from doing the same thing with IPv6, except that using ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) is going
to be easier, generally. Anyway, the old code looks something like this:
// !!! THIS IS THE OLD WAY !!!

int sockfd;
struct sockaddr_in my_addr;

sockfd = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);

my_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
my_addr.sin_port = htons(MYPORT); // short, network byte
order
my_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("10.12.110.57");
memset(my_addr.sin_zero, '\0', sizeof my_addr.sin_zero);

bind(sockfd, (struct sockaddr *)&my_addr, sizeof my_addr);

In the above code, you could also assign INADDR_ANY to the s_addr field if you
wanted to bind to your local IP address (like the AI_PASSIVE flag, above.) The
IPv6 version of INADDR_ANY is a global variable in6addr_any that is assigned
into the sin6_addr field of your struct sockaddr_in6. (There is also a
macro IN6ADDR_ANY_INIT that you can use in a variable initializer.)

Another thing to watch out for when calling bbiinndd(()): don't go underboard with
your port numbers. All ports below 1024 are RESERVED (unless you're the
superuser)! You can have any port number above that, right up to 65535
(provided they aren't already being used by another program.)

Sometimes, you might notice, you try to rerun a server and bbiinndd(()) fails,
claiming "Address already in use." What does that mean? Well, a little bit of a
socket that was connected is still hanging around in the kernel, and it's hogging
the port. You can either wait for it to clear (a minute or so), or add code to your
program allowing it to reuse the port, like this:

int yes=1;
//char yes='1'; // Solaris people use this

// lose the pesky "Address already in use" error message

if
(setsockopt(listener,SOL_SOCKET,SO_REUSEADDR,&yes,sizeof(int))
== -1) {
perror("setsockopt");
exit(1);
}

One small extra final note about bbiinndd(()): there are times when you won't
absolutely have to call it. If you are ccoonnnneecctt(())ing to a remote machine and you
don't care what your local port is (as is the case with telnet where you only care
about the remote port), you can simply call ccoonnnneecctt(()), it'll check to see if the
socket is unbound, and will bbiinndd(()) it to an unused local port if necessary.

5.4. connect()—Hey, you!

Let's just pretend for a few minutes that you're a telnet application. Your user
commands you (just like in the movie TRON) to get a socket file descriptor. You
comply and call ssoocckkeett(()). Next, the user tells you to connect to
"10.12.110.57" on port "23" (the standard telnet port.) Yow! What do you do
now?

Lucky for you, program, you're now perusing the section on ccoonnnneecctt(())—how to
connect to a remote host. So read furiously onward! No time to lose!

The ccoonnnneecctt(()) call is as follows:

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int connect(int sockfd, struct sockaddr *serv_addr, int

addrlen);

sockfd is our friendly neighborhood socket file descriptor, as returned by the

ssoocckkeett(()) call, serv_addr is a struct sockaddr containing the destination
port and IP address, and addrlen is the length in bytes of the server address
structure.

All of this information can be gleaned from the results of the ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(())
call, which rocks.

Is this starting to make more sense? I can't hear you from here, so I'll just have
to hope that it is. Let's have an example where we make a socket connection to
"www.example.com", port 3490:

struct addrinfo hints, *res;

int sockfd;

// first, load up address structs with getaddrinfo():

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC;
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;

getaddrinfo("www.example.com", "3490", &hints, &res);

// make a socket:

sockfd = socket(res->ai_family, res->ai_socktype,

res->ai_protocol);

// connect!

connect(sockfd, res->ai_addr, res->ai_addrlen);

Again, old-school programs filled out their own struct sockaddr_ins to pass
to ccoonnnneecctt(()). You can do that if you want to. See the similar note in the bbiinndd(())
section, above.

Be sure to check the return value from ccoonnnneecctt(())—it'll return -1 on error and
set the variable errno.

Also, notice that we didn't call bbiinndd(()). Basically, we don't care about our local
port number; we only care where we're going (the remote port). The kernel will
choose a local port for us, and the site we connect to will automatically get this
information from us. No worries.

5.5. listen()—Will somebody please call me?

Ok, time for a change of pace. What if you don't want to connect to a remote
host. Say, just for kicks, that you want to wait for incoming connections and
handle them in some way. The process is two step: first you lliisstteenn(()), then you
aacccceepptt(()) (see below.)

The listen call is fairly simple, but requires a bit of explanation:

int listen(int sockfd, int backlog);

sockfd is the usual socket file descriptor from the ssoocckkeett(()) system call.
backlog is the number of connections allowed on the incoming queue. What
does that mean? Well, incoming connections are going to wait in this queue until
you aacccceepptt(()) them (see below) and this is the limit on how many can queue up.
Most systems silently limit this number to about 20; you can probably get away
with setting it to 5 or 10.

Again, as per usual, lliisstteenn(()) returns -1 and sets errno on error.

Well, as you can probably imagine, we need to call bbiinndd(()) before we call
lliisstteenn(()) so that the server is running on a specific port. (You have to be able to
tell your buddies which port to connect to!) So if you're going to be listening for
incoming connections, the sequence of system calls you'll make is:

getaddrinfo();
socket();
bind();
listen();
/* accept() goes here */

I'll just leave that in the place of sample code, since it's fairly self-explanatory.
(The code in the aacccceepptt(()) section, below, is more complete.) The really tricky
part of this whole sha-bang is the call to aacccceepptt(()).

5.6. accept()—"Thank you for calling port 3490."

Get ready—the aacccceepptt(()) call is kinda weird! What's going to happen is this:
someone far far away will try to ccoonnnneecctt(()) to your machine on a port that you
are lliisstteenn(())ing on. Their connection will be queued up waiting to be
aacccceepptt(())ed. You call aacccceepptt(()) and you tell it to get the pending connection.
It'll return to you a brand new socket file descriptor to use for this single
connection! That's right, suddenly you have two socket file descriptors for the
price of one! The original one is still listening for more new connections, and the
newly created one is finally ready to sseenndd(()) and rreeccvv(()). We're there!

The call is as follows:

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int accept(int sockfd, struct sockaddr *addr, socklen_t

*addrlen);

sockfd is the lliisstteenn(())ing socket descriptor. Easy enough. addr will usually be
a pointer to a local struct sockaddr_storage. This is where the information
about the incoming connection will go (and with it you can determine which host
is calling you from which port). addrlen is a local integer variable that should be
set to sizeof(struct sockaddr_storage) before its address is passed to
aacccceepptt(()). aacccceepptt(()) will not put more than that many bytes into addr. If it
puts fewer in, it'll change the value of addrlen to reflect that.

Guess what? aacccceepptt(()) returns -1 and sets errno if an error occurs. Betcha
didn't figure that.

Like before, this is a bunch to absorb in one chunk, so here's a sample code
fragment for your perusal:

#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>

#define MYPORT "3490" // the port users will be connecting

to
#define BACKLOG 10 // how many pending connections queue
will hold

int main(void)
{
struct sockaddr_storage their_addr;
socklen_t addr_size;
struct addrinfo hints, *res;
int sockfd, new_fd;

// !! don't forget your error checking for these calls !!

// first, load up address structs with getaddrinfo():

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // use IPv4 or IPv6,
whichever
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE; // fill in my IP for me

getaddrinfo(NULL, MYPORT, &hints, &res);

// make a socket, bind it, and listen on it:

sockfd = socket(res->ai_family, res->ai_socktype,

res->ai_protocol);
bind(sockfd, res->ai_addr, res->ai_addrlen);
listen(sockfd, BACKLOG);
 // now accept an incoming connection:

addr_size = sizeof their_addr;

new_fd = accept(sockfd, (struct sockaddr *)&their_addr,
&addr_size);

// ready to communicate on socket descriptor new_fd!

.
.
.

Again, note that we will use the socket descriptor new_fd for all sseenndd(()) and
rreeccvv(()) calls. If you're only getting one single connection ever, you can cclloossee(())
the listening sockfd in order to prevent more incoming connections on the same
port, if you so desire.

5.7. send() and recv()—Talk to me, baby!

These two functions are for communicating over stream sockets or connected
datagram sockets. If you want to use regular unconnected datagram sockets,
you'll need to see the section on sseennddttoo(()) and rreeccvvffrroomm(()), below.

The sseenndd(()) call:

int send(int sockfd, const void *msg, int len, int flags);

sockfd is the socket descriptor you want to send data to (whether it's the one
returned by ssoocckkeett(()) or the one you got with aacccceepptt(()).) msg is a pointer to
the data you want to send, and len is the length of that data in bytes. Just set
flags to 0. (See the sseenndd(()) man page for more information concerning flags.)

Some sample code might be:

char *msg = "Beej was here!";

int len, bytes_sent;
.
.
.
len = strlen(msg);
bytes_sent = send(sockfd, msg, len, 0);
.
.
.

sseenndd(()) returns the number of bytes actually sent out—this might be less than
the number you told it to send! See, sometimes you tell it to send a whole gob of
data and it just can't handle it. It'll fire off as much of the data as it can, and trust
you to send the rest later. Remember, if the value returned by sseenndd(()) doesn't
match the value in len, it's up to you to send the rest of the string. The good
news is this: if the packet is small (less than 1K or so) it will probably manage to
send the whole thing all in one go. Again, -1 is returned on error, and errno is
set to the error number.
The rreeccvv(()) call is similar in many respects:

int recv(int sockfd, void *buf, int len, int flags);

sockfd is the socket descriptor to read from, buf is the buffer to read the
information into, len is the maximum length of the buffer, and flags can again
be set to 0. (See the rreeccvv(()) man page for flag information.)

rreeccvv(()) returns the number of bytes actually read into the buffer, or -1 on error
(with errno set, accordingly.)

Wait! rreeccvv(()) can return 0. This can mean only one thing: the remote side has
closed the connection on you! A return value of 0 is rreeccvv(())'s way of letting you
know this has occurred.

There, that was easy, wasn't it? You can now pass data back and forth on stream
sockets! Whee! You're a Unix Network Programmer!

5.8. sendto() and recvfrom()—Talk to me, DGRAM-style

"This is all fine and dandy," I hear you saying, "but where does this leave me with
unconnected datagram sockets?" No problemo, amigo. We have just the thing.

Since datagram sockets aren't connected to a remote host, guess which piece of
information we need to give before we send a packet? That's right! The
destination address! Here's the scoop:

int sendto(int sockfd, const void *msg, int len, unsigned

int flags,
const struct sockaddr *to, socklen_t tolen);

As you can see, this call is basically the same as the call to sseenndd(()) with the
addition of two other pieces of information. to is a pointer to a
struct sockaddr (which will probably be another struct sockaddr_in or
struct sockaddr_in6 or struct sockaddr_storage that you cast at the
last minute) which contains the destination IP address and port. tolen, an int
deep-down, can simply be set to sizeof *to or sizeof(struct
sockaddr_storage).

To get your hands on the destination address structure, you'll probably either get
it from ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()), or from rreeccvvffrroomm(()), below, or you'll fill it out by hand.

Just like with sseenndd(()), sseennddttoo(()) returns the number of bytes actually sent
(which, again, might be less than the number of bytes you told it to send!), or -1
on error.

Equally similar are rreeccvv(()) and rreeccvvffrroomm(()). The synopsis of rreeccvvffrroomm(()) is:

int recvfrom(int sockfd, void *buf, int len, unsigned int

flags,
struct sockaddr *from, int *fromlen);
Again, this is just like rreeccvv(()) with the addition of a couple fields. from is a
pointer to a local struct sockaddr_storage that will be filled with the IP
address and port of the originating machine. fromlen is a pointer to a local int
that should be initialized to sizeof *from or sizeof(struct
sockaddr_storage). When the function returns, fromlen will contain the
length of the address actually stored in from.

rreeccvvffrroomm(()) returns the number of bytes received, or -1 on error (with errno

set accordingly.)

So, here's a question: why do we use struct sockaddr_storage as the

socket type? Why not struct sockaddr_in? Because, you see, we want to not
tie ourselves down to IPv4 or IPv6. So we use the generic
struct sockaddr_storage which we know will be big enough for either.

(So... here's another question: why isn't struct sockaddr itself big enough for
any address? We even cast the general-purpose struct sockaddr_storage
to the general-purpose struct sockaddr! Seems extraneous and redundant,
huh. The answer is, it just isn't big enough, and I'd guess that changing it at this
point would be Problematic. So they made a new one.)

Remember, if you ccoonnnneecctt(()) a datagram socket, you can then simply use
sseenndd(()) and rreeccvv(()) for all your transactions. The socket itself is still a datagram
socket and the packets still use UDP, but the socket interface will automatically
add the destination and source information for you.

5.9. close() and shutdown()—Get outta my face!

Whew! You've been sseenndd(())ing and rreeccvv(())ing data all day long, and you've had
it. You're ready to close the connection on your socket descriptor. This is easy.
You can just use the regular Unix file descriptor cclloossee(()) function:

close(sockfd);

This will prevent any more reads and writes to the socket. Anyone attempting to
read or write the socket on the remote end will receive an error.

Just in case you want a little more control over how the socket closes, you can
use the sshhuuttddoowwnn(()) function. It allows you to cut off communication in a certain
direction, or both ways (just like cclloossee(()) does.) Synopsis:

int shutdown(int sockfd, int how);

sockfd is the socket file descriptor you want to shutdown, and how is one of the
following:

0 Further receives are disallowed

 1 Further sends are disallowed

2 Further sends and receives are disallowed (like cclloossee(()))

sshhuuttddoowwnn(()) returns 0 on success, and -1 on error (with errno set

accordingly.)

If you deign to use sshhuuttddoowwnn(()) on unconnected datagram sockets, it will simply

make the socket unavailable for further sseenndd( ()) and rreeccvv(()) calls (remember
that you can use these if you ccoonnnneecctt(()) your datagram socket.)

It's important to note that sshhuuttddoowwnn(()) doesn't actually close the file
descriptor—it just changes its usability. To free a socket descriptor, you need to
use cclloossee(()).

Nothing to it.

(Except to remember that if you're using Windows and Winsock that you should
call cclloosseessoocckkeett(()) instead of cclloossee(()).)

5.10. getpeername()—Who are you?

This function is so easy.

It's so easy, I almost didn't give it its own section. But here it is anyway.

The function ggeettppeeeerrnnaammee(()) will tell you who is at the other end of a connected
stream socket. The synopsis:

#include <sys/socket.h>

int getpeername(int sockfd, struct sockaddr *addr, int

*addrlen);

sockfd is the descriptor of the connected stream socket, addr is a pointer to a

struct sockaddr (or a struct sockaddr_in) that will hold the information
about the other side of the connection, and addrlen is a pointer to an int, that
should be initialized to sizeof *addr or sizeof(struct sockaddr).

The function returns -1 on error and sets errno accordingly.

Once you have their address, you can use iinneett__nnttoopp(()), ggeettnnaammeeiinnffoo(()), or
ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(()) to print or get more information. No, you can't get their login
name. (Ok, ok. If the other computer is running an ident daemon, this is possible.
This, however, is beyond the scope of this document. Check out RFC 1413 for
more info.)

5.11. gethostname()—Who am I?
Even easier than ggeettppeeeerrnnaammee(()) is the function ggeetthhoossttnnaammee(()). It returns
the name of the computer that your program is running on. The name can then
be used by ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()), below, to determine the IP address of your local
machine.

What could be more fun? I could think of a few things, but they don't pertain to
socket programming. Anyway, here's the breakdown:

#include <unistd.h>

int gethostname(char *hostname, size_t size);

The arguments are simple: hostname is a pointer to an array of chars that will
contain the hostname upon the function's return, and size is the length in bytes
of the hostname array.

The function returns 0 on successful completion, and -1 on error, setting errno

as usual.

6. Client-Server Background

It's a client-server world, baby. Just about everything on the network deals with
client processes talking to server processes and vice-versa. Take telnet, for
instance. When you connect to a remote host on port 23 with telnet (the client), a
program on that host (called telnetd, the server) springs to life. It handles the
incoming telnet connection, sets you up with a login prompt, etc.

Client-Server Interaction.

The exchange of information between client and server is summarized in the

above diagram.

Note that the client-server pair can speak SOCK_STREAM, SOCK_DGRAM, or

anything else (as long as they're speaking the same thing.) Some good examples
of client-server pairs are telnet/telnetd, ftp/ftpd, or Firefox/Apache. Every time
you use ftp, there's a remote program, ftpd, that serves you.

Often, there will only be one server on a machine, and that server will handle
multiple clients using ffoorrkk(()). The basic routine is: server will wait for a
connection, aacccceepptt(()) it, and ffoorrkk(()) a child process to handle it. This is what
our sample server does in the next section.

6.1. A Simple Stream Server

All this server does is send the string "Hello, World!\n" out over a stream
connection. All you need to do to test this server is run it in one window, and
telnet to it from another with:

$ telnet remotehostname 3490

where remotehostname is the name of the machine you're running it on.

The server code:

/*
** server.c -- a stream socket server demo
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <netdb.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <signal.h>

#define PORT "3490" // the port users will be connecting to

#define BACKLOG 10 // how many pending connections queue

will hold

void sigchld_handler(int s)
{
while(waitpid(-1, NULL, WNOHANG) > 0);
}

// get sockaddr, IPv4 or IPv6:

void *get_in_addr(struct sockaddr *sa)
{
if (sa->sa_family == AF_INET) {
return &(((struct sockaddr_in*)sa)->sin_addr);
}

return &(((struct sockaddr_in6*)sa)->sin6_addr);

}

int main(void)
{
int sockfd, new_fd; // listen on sock_fd, new
connection on new_fd
struct addrinfo hints, *servinfo, *p;
struct sockaddr_storage their_addr; // connector's
address information
socklen_t sin_size;
struct sigaction sa;
int yes=1;
char s[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];
int rv;

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC;
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE; // use my IP
 if ((rv = getaddrinfo(NULL, PORT, &hints, &servinfo)) !=
0) {
fprintf(stderr, "getaddrinfo: %s\n",
gai_strerror(rv));
return 1;
}

// loop through all the results and bind to the first we

can
for(p = servinfo; p != NULL; p = p->ai_next) {
if ((sockfd = socket(p->ai_family, p->ai_socktype,
p->ai_protocol)) == -1) {
perror("server: socket");
continue;
}

if (setsockopt(sockfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR,

&yes,
sizeof(int)) == -1) {
perror("setsockopt");
exit(1);
}

if (bind(sockfd, p->ai_addr, p->ai_addrlen) == -1) {

close(sockfd);
perror("server: bind");
continue;
}

break;
}

if (p == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "server: failed to bind\n");
return 2;
}

freeaddrinfo(servinfo); // all done with this structure

if (listen(sockfd, BACKLOG) == -1) {

perror("listen");
exit(1);
}

sa.sa_handler = sigchld_handler; // reap all dead

processes
sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);
sa.sa_flags = SA_RESTART;
if (sigaction(SIGCHLD, &sa, NULL) == -1) {
perror("sigaction");
exit(1);
}

printf("server: waiting for connections...\n");

while(1) { // main accept() loop

sin_size = sizeof their_addr;
new_fd = accept(sockfd, (struct sockaddr
*)&their_addr, &sin_size);
if (new_fd == -1) {
perror("accept");
continue;
}

inet_ntop(their_addr.ss_family,
get_in_addr((struct sockaddr *)&their_addr),
s, sizeof s);
printf("server: got connection from %s\n", s);

if (!fork()) { // this is the child process

close(sockfd); // child doesn't need the listener
if (send(new_fd, "Hello, world!", 13, 0) == -1)
perror("send");
close(new_fd);
exit(0);
}
close(new_fd); // parent doesn't need this
}

return 0;
}

In case you're curious, I have the code in one big mmaaiinn(()) function for (I feel)
syntactic clarity. Feel free to split it into smaller functions if it makes you feel
better.

(Also, this whole ssiiggaaccttiioonn(()) thing might be new to you—that's ok. The code
that's there is responsible for reaping zombie processes that appear as the
ffoorrkk(())ed child processes exit. If you make lots of zombies and don't reap them,
your system administrator will become agitated.)

You can get the data from this server by using the client listed in the next section.

6.2. A Simple Stream Client

This guy's even easier than the server. All this client does is connect to the host
you specify on the command line, port 3490. It gets the string that the server
sends.

The client source:

/*
** client.c -- a stream socket client demo
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <netdb.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>

#define PORT "3490" // the port client will be connecting to

#define MAXDATASIZE 100 // max number of bytes we can get at

once

// get sockaddr, IPv4 or IPv6:

void *get_in_addr(struct sockaddr *sa)
{
if (sa->sa_family == AF_INET) {
return &(((struct sockaddr_in*)sa)->sin_addr);
}

return &(((struct sockaddr_in6*)sa)->sin6_addr);

}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])

{
int sockfd, numbytes;
char buf[MAXDATASIZE];
struct addrinfo hints, *servinfo, *p;
int rv;
char s[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];

if (argc != 2) {
fprintf(stderr,"usage: client hostname\n");
exit(1);
}

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC;
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;

if ((rv = getaddrinfo(argv[1], PORT, &hints, &servinfo))

!= 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "getaddrinfo: %s\n",
gai_strerror(rv));
return 1;
}

// loop through all the results and connect to the first

we can
for(p = servinfo; p != NULL; p = p->ai_next) {
if ((sockfd = socket(p->ai_family, p->ai_socktype,
p->ai_protocol)) == -1) {
perror("client: socket");
continue;
}

if (connect(sockfd, p->ai_addr, p->ai_addrlen) ==

-1) {
close(sockfd);
perror("client: connect");
continue;
}

break;
 }

if (p == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "client: failed to connect\n");
return 2;
}

inet_ntop(p->ai_family, get_in_addr((struct sockaddr

*)p->ai_addr),
s, sizeof s);
printf("client: connecting to %s\n", s);

freeaddrinfo(servinfo); // all done with this structure

if ((numbytes = recv(sockfd, buf, MAXDATASIZE-1, 0)) ==

-1) {
perror("recv");
exit(1);
}

buf[numbytes] = '\0';

printf("client: received '%s'\n",buf);

close(sockfd);

return 0;
}

Notice that if you don't run the server before you run the client, ccoonnnneecctt(())
returns "Connection refused". Very useful.

6.3. Datagram Sockets

We've already covered the basics of UDP datagram sockets with our discussion of
sseennddttoo(()) and rreeccvvffrroomm(()), above, so I'll just present a couple of sample
programs: talker.c and listener.c.

listener sits on a machine waiting for an incoming packet on port 4950. talker
sends a packet to that port, on the specified machine, that contains whatever the
user enters on the command line.

Here is the source for listener.c:

/*
** listener.c -- a datagram sockets "server" demo
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <netdb.h>

#define MYPORT "4950" // the port users will be

connecting to

#define MAXBUFLEN 100

// get sockaddr, IPv4 or IPv6:

void *get_in_addr(struct sockaddr *sa)
{
if (sa->sa_family == AF_INET) {
return &(((struct sockaddr_in*)sa)->sin_addr);
}

return &(((struct sockaddr_in6*)sa)->sin6_addr);

}

int main(void)
{
int sockfd;
struct addrinfo hints, *servinfo, *p;
int rv;
int numbytes;
struct sockaddr_storage their_addr;
char buf[MAXBUFLEN];
socklen_t addr_len;
char s[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // set to AF_INET to force
IPv4
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_DGRAM;
hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE; // use my IP

if ((rv = getaddrinfo(NULL, MYPORT, &hints, &servinfo))

!= 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "getaddrinfo: %s\n",
gai_strerror(rv));
return 1;
}

// loop through all the results and bind to the first we

can
for(p = servinfo; p != NULL; p = p->ai_next) {
if ((sockfd = socket(p->ai_family, p->ai_socktype,
p->ai_protocol)) == -1) {
perror("listener: socket");
continue;
}

if (bind(sockfd, p->ai_addr, p->ai_addrlen) == -1) {

close(sockfd);
perror("listener: bind");
continue;
}

break;
}
 if (p == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "listener: failed to bind socket\n");
return 2;
}

freeaddrinfo(servinfo);

printf("listener: waiting to recvfrom...\n");

addr_len = sizeof their_addr;

if ((numbytes = recvfrom(sockfd, buf, MAXBUFLEN-1 , 0,
(struct sockaddr *)&their_addr, &addr_len)) == -1) {
perror("recvfrom");
exit(1);
}

printf("listener: got packet from %s\n",

inet_ntop(their_addr.ss_family,
get_in_addr((struct sockaddr *)&their_addr),
s, sizeof s));
printf("listener: packet is %d bytes long\n", numbytes);
buf[numbytes] = '\0';
printf("listener: packet contains \"%s\"\n", buf);

close(sockfd);

return 0;
}

Notice that in our call to ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) we're finally using SOCK_DGRAM. Also,
note that there's no need to lliisstteenn(()) or aacccceepptt(()). This is one of the perks of
using unconnected datagram sockets!

Next comes the source for talker.c:

/*
** talker.c -- a datagram "client" demo
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <netdb.h>

#define SERVERPORT "4950" // the port users will be

connecting to

int main(int argc, char *argv[])

{
int sockfd;
struct addrinfo hints, *servinfo, *p;
int rv;
 int numbytes;

if (argc != 3) {
fprintf(stderr,"usage: talker hostname message\n");
exit(1);
}

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC;
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_DGRAM;

if ((rv = getaddrinfo(argv[1], SERVERPORT, &hints,

&servinfo)) != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "getaddrinfo: %s\n",
gai_strerror(rv));
return 1;
}

// loop through all the results and make a socket

for(p = servinfo; p != NULL; p = p->ai_next) {
if ((sockfd = socket(p->ai_family, p->ai_socktype,
p->ai_protocol)) == -1) {
perror("talker: socket");
continue;
}

break;
}

if (p == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "talker: failed to bind socket\n");
return 2;
}

if ((numbytes = sendto(sockfd, argv[2], strlen(argv[2]),

0,
p->ai_addr, p->ai_addrlen)) == -1) {
perror("talker: sendto");
exit(1);
}

freeaddrinfo(servinfo);

printf("talker: sent %d bytes to %s\n", numbytes,

argv[1]);
close(sockfd);

return 0;
}

And that's all there is to it! Run listener on some machine, then run talker on
another. Watch them communicate! Fun G-rated excitement for the entire nuclear
family!

You don't even have to run the server this time! You can run talker by itself, and it
just happily fires packets off into the ether where they disappear if no one is
ready with a rreeccvvffrroomm(()) on the other side. Remember: data sent using UDP
datagram sockets isn't guaranteed to arrive!
Except for one more tiny detail that I've mentioned many times in the past:
connected datagram sockets. I need to talk about this here, since we're in the
datagram section of the document. Let's say that talker calls ccoonnnneecctt(()) and
specifies the listener's address. From that point on, talker may only sent to and
receive from the address specified by ccoonnnne ecctt(()). For this reason, you don't
have to use sseennddttoo(()) and rreeccvvffrroomm(()); you can simply use sseenndd(()) and
rreeccvv(()).

7. Slightly Advanced Techniques

These aren't really advanced, but they're getting out of the more basic levels
we've already covered. In fact, if you've gotten this far, you should consider
yourself fairly accomplished in the basics of Unix network programming!
Congratulations!

So here we go into the brave new world of some of the more esoteric things you
might want to learn about sockets. Have at it!

7.1. Blocking

Blocking. You've heard about it—now what the heck is it? In a nutshell, "block" is
techie jargon for "sleep". You probably noticed that when you run listener, above,
it just sits there until a packet arrives. What happened is that it called
rreeccvvffrroomm(()), there was no data, and so rreeccvvffrroomm(()) is said to "block" (that is,
sleep there) until some data arrives.

Lots of functions block. aacccceepptt(()) blocks. All the rreeccvv(()) functions block. The
reason they can do this is because they're allowed to. When you first create the
socket descriptor with ssoocckkeett(()), the kernel sets it to blocking. If you don't want
a socket to be blocking, you have to make a call to ffccnnttll(()):

#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
.
.
.
sockfd = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
fcntl(sockfd, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK);
.
.
.

By setting a socket to non-blocking, you can effectively "poll" the socket for
information. If you try to read from a non-blocking socket and there's no data
there, it's not allowed to block—it will return -1 and errno will be set to
EWOULDBLOCK.

Generally speaking, however, this type of polling is a bad idea. If you put your
program in a busy-wait looking for data on the socket, you'll suck up CPU time
like it was going out of style. A more elegant solution for checking to see if
there's data waiting to be read comes in the following section on sseelleecctt(()).
7.2. select()—Synchronous I/O Multiplexing

This function is somewhat strange, but it's very useful. Take the following
situation: you are a server and you want to listen for incoming connections as
well as keep reading from the connections you already have.

No problem, you say, just an aacccceepptt(()) and a couple of rreeccvv(())s. Not so fast,
buster! What if you're blocking on an aacccceepptt(()) call? How are you going to
rreeccvv(()) data at the same time? "Use non-blocking sockets!" No way! You don't
want to be a CPU hog. What, then?

sseelleecctt(()) gives you the power to monitor several sockets at the same time. It'll
tell you which ones are ready for reading, which are ready for writing, and which
sockets have raised exceptions, if you really want to know that.

This being said, in modern times sseelleecctt(()), though very portable, is one of the
slowest methods for monitoring sockets. One possible alternative is libevent, or
something similar, that encapsulates all the system-dependent stuff involved with
getting socket notifications.

Without any further ado, I'll offer the synopsis of sseelleecctt(()):

#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int select(int numfds, fd_set *readfds, fd_set *writefds,

fd_set *exceptfds, struct timeval *timeout);

The function monitors "sets" of file descriptors; in particular readfds,

writefds, and exceptfds. If you want to see if you can read from standard
input and some socket descriptor, sockfd, just add the file descriptors 0 and
sockfd to the set readfds. The parameter numfds should be set to the values
of the highest file descriptor plus one. In this example, it should be set to
sockfd+1, since it is assuredly higher than standard input (0).

When sseelleecctt(()) returns, readfds will be modified to reflect which of the file
descriptors you selected which is ready for reading. You can test them with the
macro FFDD__IISSSSEETT(()), below.

Before progressing much further, I'll talk about how to manipulate these sets.
Each set is of the type fd_set. The following macros operate on this type:

FFDD__SSEETT((iinntt ffdd,, ffdd__sseett **sseett));; Add fd to the set.

FFDD__CCLLRR((iinntt ffdd,, ffdd__sseett **sseett));; Remove fd from the set.

FFDD__IISSSSEETT((iinntt ffdd,, ffdd__sseett Return true if fd is in the set.

 **sseett));;

FFDD__ZZEERROO((ffdd__sseett **sseett));; Clear all entries from the set.

Finally, what is this weirded out struct timeval? Well, sometimes you don't
want to wait forever for someone to send you some data. Maybe every 96
seconds you want to print "Still Going..." to the terminal even though nothing has
happened. This time structure allows you to specify a timeout period. If the time
is exceeded and sseelleecctt(()) still hasn't found any ready file descriptors, it'll
return so you can continue processing.

The struct timeval has the follow fields:

struct timeval {
int tv_sec; // seconds
int tv_usec; // microseconds
};

Just set tv_sec to the number of seconds to wait, and set tv_usec to the
number of microseconds to wait. Yes, that's microseconds, not milliseconds.
There are 1,000 microseconds in a millisecond, and 1,000 milliseconds in a
second. Thus, there are 1,000,000 microseconds in a second. Why is it "usec"?
The "u" is supposed to look like the Greek letter μ (Mu) that we use for "micro".
Also, when the function returns, timeout might be updated to show the time still
remaining. This depends on what flavor of Unix you're running.

Yay! We have a microsecond resolution timer! Well, don't count on it. You'll
probably have to wait some part of your standard Unix timeslice no matter how
small you set your struct timeval.

Other things of interest: If you set the fields in your struct timeval to 0,
sseelleecctt(()) will timeout immediately, effectively polling all the file descriptors in
your sets. If you set the parameter timeout to NULL, it will never timeout, and
will wait until the first file descriptor is ready. Finally, if you don't care about
waiting for a certain set, you can just set it to NULL in the call to sseelleecctt(()).

The following code snippet waits 2.5 seconds for something to appear on
standard input:

/*
** select.c -- a select() demo
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>

#define STDIN 0 // file descriptor for standard input

int main(void)
{
struct timeval tv;
fd_set readfds;

tv.tv_sec = 2;
tv.tv_usec = 500000;

FD_ZERO(&readfds);
FD_SET(STDIN, &readfds);

// don't care about writefds and exceptfds:

select(STDIN+1, &readfds, NULL, NULL, &tv);

if (FD_ISSET(STDIN, &readfds))
printf("A key was pressed!\n");
else
printf("Timed out.\n");

return 0;
}

If you're on a line buffered terminal, the key you hit should be RETURN or it will
time out anyway.

Now, some of you might think this is a great way to wait for data on a datagram
socket—and you are right: it might be. Some Unices can use select in this
manner, and some can't. You should see what your local man page says on the
matter if you want to attempt it.

Some Unices update the time in your struct timeval to reflect the amount of
time still remaining before a timeout. But others do not. Don't rely on that
occurring if you want to be portable. (Use ggeettttiimmeeooffddaayy(()) if you need to track
time elapsed. It's a bummer, I know, but that's the way it is.)

What happens if a socket in the read set closes the connection? Well, in that
case, sseelleecctt(()) returns with that socket descriptor set as "ready to read". When
you actually do rreeccvv(()) from it, rreeccvv(()) will return 0. That's how you know the
client has closed the connection.

One more note of interest about sseelleecctt(()): if you have a socket that is
lliisstteenn(())ing, you can check to see if there is a new connection by putting that
socket's file descriptor in the readfds set.

And that, my friends, is a quick overview of the almighty sseelleecctt(()) function.

But, by popular demand, here is an in-depth example. Unfortunately, the

difference between the dirt-simple example, above, and this one here is
significant. But have a look, then read the description that follows it.

This program acts like a simple multi-user chat server. Start it running in one
window, then telnet to it ("telnet hostname 9034") from multiple other windows.
When you type something in one telnet session, it should appear in all the others.

/*
** selectserver.c -- a cheezy multiperson chat server
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <netdb.h>

#define PORT "9034" // port we're listening on

// get sockaddr, IPv4 or IPv6:

void *get_in_addr(struct sockaddr *sa)
{
if (sa->sa_family == AF_INET) {
return &(((struct sockaddr_in*)sa)->sin_addr);
}

return &(((struct sockaddr_in6*)sa)->sin6_addr);

}

int main(void)
{
fd_set master; // master file descriptor list
fd_set read_fds; // temp file descriptor list for
select()
int fdmax; // maximum file descriptor number

int listener; // listening socket descriptor

int newfd; // newly accept()ed socket descriptor
struct sockaddr_storage remoteaddr; // client address
socklen_t addrlen;

char buf[256]; // buffer for client data

int nbytes;

char remoteIP[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];

int yes=1; // for setsockopt() SO_REUSEADDR, below

int i, j, rv;

struct addrinfo hints, *ai, *p;

FD_ZERO(&master); // clear the master and temp sets

FD_ZERO(&read_fds);

// get us a socket and bind it

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);
hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC;
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE;
if ((rv = getaddrinfo(NULL, PORT, &hints, &ai)) != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "selectserver: %s\n",
gai_strerror(rv));
exit(1);
 }

for(p = ai; p != NULL; p = p->ai_next) {

listener = socket(p->ai_family, p->ai_socktype,
p->ai_protocol);
if (listener < 0) {
continue;
}

// lose the pesky "address already in use" error

message
setsockopt(listener, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, &yes,
sizeof(int));

if (bind(listener, p->ai_addr, p->ai_addrlen) < 0) {

close(listener);
continue;
}

break;
}

// if we got here, it means we didn't get bound

if (p == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "selectserver: failed to bind\n");
exit(2);
}

freeaddrinfo(ai); // all done with this

// listen
if (listen(listener, 10) == -1) {
perror("listen");
exit(3);
}

// add the listener to the master set

FD_SET(listener, &master);

// keep track of the biggest file descriptor

fdmax = listener; // so far, it's this one

// main loop
for(;;) {
read_fds = master; // copy it
if (select(fdmax+1, &read_fds, NULL, NULL, NULL) ==
-1) {
perror("select");
exit(4);
}

// run through the existing connections looking for

data to read
for(i = 0; i <= fdmax; i++) {
if (FD_ISSET(i, &read_fds)) { // we got one!!
if (i == listener) {
// handle new connections
addrlen = sizeof remoteaddr;
newfd = accept(listener,
 (struct sockaddr *)&remoteaddr,
&addrlen);

if (newfd == -1) {
perror("accept");
} else {
FD_SET(newfd, &master); // add to
master set
if (newfd > fdmax) { // keep
track of the max
fdmax = newfd;
}
printf("selectserver: new connection
from %s on "
"socket %d\n",
inet_ntop(remoteaddr.ss_family,
get_in_addr((struct
sockaddr*)&remoteaddr),
remoteIP, INET6_ADDRSTRLEN),
newfd);
}
} else {
// handle data from a client
if ((nbytes = recv(i, buf, sizeof buf,
0)) <= 0) {
// got error or connection closed by
client
if (nbytes == 0) {
// connection closed
printf("selectserver: socket %d
hung up\n", i);
} else {
perror("recv");
}
close(i); // bye!
FD_CLR(i, &master); // remove from
master set
} else {
// we got some data from a client
for(j = 0; j <= fdmax; j++) {
// send to everyone!
if (FD_ISSET(j, &master)) {
// except the listener and
ourselves
if (j != listener && j != i)
{
if (send(j, buf, nbytes,
0) == -1) {
perror("send");
}
}
}
}
}
} // END handle data from client
} // END got new incoming connection
} // END looping through file descriptors
} // END for(;;)--and you thought it would never end!
 return 0;
}

Notice I have two file descriptor sets in the code: master and read_fds. The
first, master, holds all the socket descriptors that are currently connected, as
well as the socket descriptor that is listening for new connections.

The reason I have the master set is that sseelleecctt(()) actually changes the set you
pass into it to reflect which sockets are ready to read. Since I have to keep track
of the connections from one call of sseelleecctt(()) to the next, I must store these
safely away somewhere. At the last minute, I copy the master into the
read_fds, and then call sseelleecctt(()).

But doesn't this mean that every time I get a new connection, I have to add it to
the master set? Yup! And every time a connection closes, I have to remove it
from the master set? Yes, it does.

Notice I check to see when the listener socket is ready to read. When it is, it
means I have a new connection pending, and I aacccceepptt(()) it and add it to the
master set. Similarly, when a client connection is ready to read, and rreeccvv(())
returns 0, I know the client has closed the connection, and I must remove it from
the master set.

If the client rreeccvv(()) returns non-zero, though, I know some data has been
received. So I get it, and then go through the master list and send that data to
all the rest of the connected clients.

And that, my friends, is a less-than-simple overview of the almighty sseelleecctt(())

function.

In addition, here is a bonus afterthought: there is another function called ppoollll(())

which behaves much the same way sseelleecctt(()) does, but with a different system
for managing the file descriptor sets. Check it out!

7.3. Handling Partial send()s

Remember back in the section about sseenndd(()), above, when I said that sseenndd(())
might not send all the bytes you asked it to? That is, you want it to send 512
bytes, but it returns 412. What happened to the remaining 100 bytes?

Well, they're still in your little buffer waiting to be sent out. Due to circumstances
beyond your control, the kernel decided not to send all the data out in one chunk,
and now, my friend, it's up to you to get the data out there.

You could write a function like this to do it, too:

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int sendall(int s, char *buf, int *len)

{
int total = 0; // how many bytes we've sent
 int bytesleft = *len; // how many we have left to send
int n;

while(total < *len) {

n = send(s, buf+total, bytesleft, 0);
if (n == -1) { break; }
total += n;
bytesleft -= n;
}

*len = total; // return number actually sent here

return n==-1?-1:0; // return -1 on failure, 0 on success

}

In this example, s is the socket you want to send the data to, buf is the buffer
containing the data, and len is a pointer to an int containing the number of
bytes in the buffer.

The function returns -1 on error (and errno is still set from the call to sseenndd(()).)
Also, the number of bytes actually sent is returned in len. This will be the same
number of bytes you asked it to send, unless there was an error. sseennddaallll(()) will
do it's best, huffing and puffing, to send the data out, but if there's an error, it
gets back to you right away.

For completeness, here's a sample call to the function:

char buf[10] = "Beej!";

int len;

len = strlen(buf);
if (sendall(s, buf, &len) == -1) {
perror("sendall");
printf("We only sent %d bytes because of the error!\n",
len);
}

What happens on the receiver's end when part of a packet arrives? If the packets
are variable length, how does the receiver know when one packet ends and
another begins? Yes, real-world scenarios are a royal pain in the donkeys. You
probably have to encapsulate (remember that from the data encapsulation
section way back there at the beginning?) Read on for details!

7.4. Serialization—How to Pack Data

It's easy enough to send text data across the network, you're finding, but what
happens if you want to send some "binary" data like ints or floats? It turns
out you have a few options.

1. Convert the number into text with a function like sspprriinnttff(()), then send the text.
The receiver will parse the text back into a number using a function like
ssttrrttooll(()).
2. Just send the data raw, passing a pointer to the data to sseenndd(()).
3. Encode the number into a portable binary form. The receiver will decode it.
Sneak preview! Tonight only!

[Curtain raises]

Beej says, "I prefer Method Three, above!"

[THE END]

(Before I begin this section in earnest, I should tell you that there are libraries
out there for doing this, and rolling your own and remaining portable and
error-free is quite a challenge. So hunt around and do your homework before
deciding to implement this stuff yourself. I include the information here for those
curious about how things like this work.)

Actually all the methods, above, have their drawbacks and advantages, but, like I
said, in general, I prefer the third method. First, though, let's talk about some of
the drawbacks and advantages to the other two.

The first method, encoding the numbers as text before sending, has the
advantage that you can easily print and read the data that's coming over the
wire. Sometimes a human-readable protocol is excellent to use in a
non-bandwidth-intensive situation, such as with Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
However, it has the disadvantage that it is slow to convert, and the results almost
always take up more space than the original number!

Method two: passing the raw data. This one is quite easy (but dangerous!): just
take a pointer to the data to send, and call send with it.

double d = 3490.15926535;

send(s, &d, sizeof d, 0); /* DANGER--non-portable! */

The receiver gets it like this:

double d;

recv(s, &d, sizeof d, 0); /* DANGER--non-portable! */

Fast, simple—what's not to like? Well, it turns out that not all architectures
represent a double (or int for that matter) with the same bit representation or
even the same byte ordering! The code is decidedly non-portable. (Hey—maybe
you don't need portability, in which case this is nice and fast.)

When packing integer types, we've already seen how the hhttoonnss(())-class of
functions can help keep things portable by transforming the numbers into
Network Byte Order, and how that's the Right Thing to do. Unfortunately, there
are no similar functions for float types. Is all hope lost?

Fear not! (Were you afraid there for a second? No? Not even a little bit?) There is
something we can do: we can pack (or "marshal", or "serialize", or one of a
thousand million other names) the data into a known binary format that the
receiver can unpack on the remote side.
What do I mean by "known binary format"? Well, we've already seen the
hhttoonnss(()) example, right? It changes (or "encodes", if you want to think of it that
way) a number from whatever the host format is into Network Byte Order. To
reverse (unencode) the number, the receiver calls nnttoohhss(()).

But didn't I just get finished saying there wasn't any such function for other
non-integer types? Yes. I did. And since there's no standard way in C to do this,
it's a bit of a pickle (that a gratuitous pun there for you Python fans).

The thing to do is to pack the data into a known format and send that over the
wire for decoding. For example, to pack floats, here's something quick and
dirty with plenty of room for improvement:

#include <stdint.h>

uint32_t htonf(float f)
{
uint32_t p;
uint32_t sign;

if (f < 0) { sign = 1; f = -f; }

else { sign = 0; }

p = ((((uint32_t)f)&0x7fff)<<16) | (sign<<31); // whole

part and sign
p |= (uint32_t)(((f - (int)f) * 65536.0f))&0xffff; //
fraction

return p;
}

float ntohf(uint32_t p)
{
float f = ((p>>16)&0x7fff); // whole part
f += (p&0xffff) / 65536.0f; // fraction

if (((p>>31)&0x1) == 0x1) { f = -f; } // sign bit set

return f;
}

The above code is sort of a naive implementation that stores a float in a 32-bit
number. The high bit (31) is used to store the sign of the number ("1" means
negative), and the next seven bits (30-16) are used to store the whole number
portion of the float. Finally, the remaining bits (15-0) are used to store the
fractional portion of the number.

Usage is fairly straightforward:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
float f = 3.1415926, f2;
uint32_t netf;
 netf = htonf(f); // convert to "network" form
f2 = ntohf(netf); // convert back to test

printf("Original: %f\n", f); // 3.141593

printf(" Network: 0x%08X\n", netf); // 0x0003243F
printf("Unpacked: %f\n", f2); // 3.141586

return 0;
}

On the plus side, it's small, simple, and fast. On the minus side, it's not an
efficient use of space and the range is severely restricted—try storing a number
greater-than 32767 in there and it won't be very happy! You can also see in the
above example that the last couple decimal places are not correctly preserved.

What can we do instead? Well, The Standard for storing floating point numbers is
known as IEEE-754. Most computers use this format internally for doing floating
point math, so in those cases, strictly speaking, conversion wouldn't need to be
done. But if you want your source code to be portable, that's an assumption you
can't necessarily make. (On the other hand, if you want things to be fast, you
should optimize this out on platforms that don't need to do it! That's what
hhttoonnss(()) and its ilk do.)

Here's some code that encodes floats and doubles into IEEE-754 format.
(Mostly—it doesn't encode NaN or Infinity, but it could be modified to do that.)

#define pack754_32(f) (pack754((f), 32, 8))

#define pack754_64(f) (pack754((f), 64, 11))
#define unpack754_32(i) (unpack754((i), 32, 8))
#define unpack754_64(i) (unpack754((i), 64, 11))

uint64_t pack754(long double f, unsigned bits, unsigned

expbits)
{
long double fnorm;
int shift;
long long sign, exp, significand;
unsigned significandbits = bits - expbits - 1; // -1 for
sign bit

if (f == 0.0) return 0; // get this special case out of

the way

// check sign and begin normalization

if (f < 0) { sign = 1; fnorm = -f; }
else { sign = 0; fnorm = f; }

// get the normalized form of f and track the exponent

shift = 0;
while(fnorm >= 2.0) { fnorm /= 2.0; shift++; }
while(fnorm < 1.0) { fnorm *= 2.0; shift--; }
fnorm = fnorm - 1.0;

// calculate the binary form (non-float) of the

significand data
significand = fnorm * ((1LL<<significandbits) + 0.5f);
 // get the biased exponent
exp = shift + ((1<<(expbits-1)) - 1); // shift + bias

// return the final answer

return (sign<<(bits-1)) | (exp<<(bits-expbits-1)) |
significand;
}

long double unpack754(uint64_t i, unsigned bits, unsigned

expbits)
{
long double result;
long long shift;
unsigned bias;
unsigned significandbits = bits - expbits - 1; // -1 for
sign bit

if (i == 0) return 0.0;

// pull the significand

result = (i&((1LL<<significandbits)-1)); // mask
result /= (1LL<<significandbits); // convert back to
float
result += 1.0f; // add the one back on

// deal with the exponent

bias = (1<<(expbits-1)) - 1;
shift = ((i>>significandbits)&((1LL<<expbits)-1)) - bias;
while(shift > 0) { result *= 2.0; shift--; }
while(shift < 0) { result /= 2.0; shift++; }

// sign it
result *= (i>>(bits-1))&1? -1.0: 1.0;

return result;
}

I put some handy macros up there at the top for packing and unpacking 32-bit
(probably a float) and 64-bit (probably a double) numbers, but the
ppaacckk775544(()) function could be called directly and told to encode bits-worth of
data (expbits of which are reserved for the normalized number's exponent.)

Here's sample usage:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h> // defines uintN_t types
#include <inttypes.h> // defines PRIx macros

int main(void)
{
float f = 3.1415926, f2;
double d = 3.14159265358979323, d2;
uint32_t fi;
uint64_t di;

fi = pack754_32(f);
f2 = unpack754_32(fi);
 di = pack754_64(d);
d2 = unpack754_64(di);

printf("float before : %.7f\n", f);

printf("float encoded: 0x%08" PRIx32 "\n", fi);
printf("float after : %.7f\n\n", f2);

printf("double before : %.20lf\n", d);

printf("double encoded: 0x%016" PRIx64 "\n", di);
printf("double after : %.20lf\n", d2);

return 0;
}

The above code produces this output:

float before : 3.1415925

float encoded: 0x40490FDA
float after : 3.1415925

double before : 3.14159265358979311600

double encoded: 0x400921FB54442D18
double after : 3.14159265358979311600

Another question you might have is how do you pack structs? Unfortunately for
you, the compiler is free to put padding all over the place in a struct, and that
means you can't portably send the whole thing over the wire in one chunk.
(Aren't you getting sick of hearing "can't do this", "can't do that"? Sorry! To
quote a friend, "Whenever anything goes wrong, I always blame Microsoft." This
one might not be Microsoft's fault, admittedly, but my friend's statement is
completely true.)

Back to it: the best way to send the struct over the wire is to pack each field
independently and then unpack them into the struct when they arrive on the
other side.

That's a lot of work, is what you're thinking. Yes, it is. One thing you can do is
write a helper function to help pack the data for you. It'll be fun! Really!

In the book "The Practice of Programming" by Kernighan and Pike, they

implement pprriinnttff(())-like functions called ppaacckk(()) and uunnppaacckk(()) that do
exactly this. I'd link to them, but apparently those functions aren't online with the
rest of the source from the book.

(The Practice of Programming is an excellent read. Zeus saves a kitten every time
I recommend it.)

At this point, I'm going to drop a pointer to the BSD-licensed Typed Parameter
Language C API which I've never used, but looks completely respectable. Python
and Perl programmers will want to check out their language's ppaacckk(()) and
uunnppaacckk(()) functions for accomplishing the same thing. And Java has a big-ol'
Serializable interface that can be used in a similar way.

But if you want to write your own packing utility in C, K&P's trick is to use
variable argument lists to make pprriinnttff(())-like functions to build the packets.
Here's a version I cooked up on my own based on that which hopefully will be
enough to give you an idea of how such a thing can work.

(This code references the ppaacckk775544(()) functions, above. The ppaacckkii**(()) functions
operate like the familiar hhttoonnss(()) family, except they pack into a char array
instead of another integer.)

#include <ctype.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <inttypes.h>

// various bits for floating point types--

// varies for different architectures
typedef float float32_t;
typedef double float64_t;

/*
** packi16() -- store a 16-bit int into a char buffer (like
htons())
*/
void packi16(unsigned char *buf, unsigned int i)
{
*buf++ = i>>8; *buf++ = i;
}

/*
** packi32() -- store a 32-bit int into a char buffer (like
htonl())
*/
void packi32(unsigned char *buf, unsigned long i)
{
*buf++ = i>>24; *buf++ = i>>16;
*buf++ = i>>8; *buf++ = i;
}

/*
** unpacki16() -- unpack a 16-bit int from a char buffer
(like ntohs())
*/
unsigned int unpacki16(unsigned char *buf)
{
return (buf[0]<<8) | buf[1];
}

/*
** unpacki32() -- unpack a 32-bit int from a char buffer
(like ntohl())
*/
unsigned long unpacki32(unsigned char *buf)
{
return (buf[0]<<24) | (buf[1]<<16) | (buf[2]<<8) |
buf[3];
}

/*
** pack() -- store data dictated by the format string in the
buffer
**
** h - 16-bit l - 32-bit
** c - 8-bit char f - float, 32-bit
** s - string (16-bit length is automatically prepended)
*/
int32_t pack(unsigned char *buf, char *format, ...)
{
va_list ap;
int16_t h;
int32_t l;
int8_t c;
float32_t f;
char *s;
int32_t size = 0, len;

va_start(ap, format);

for(; *format != '\0'; format++) {

switch(*format) {
case 'h': // 16-bit
size += 2;
h = (int16_t)va_arg(ap, int); // promoted
packi16(buf, h);
buf += 2;
break;

case 'l': // 32-bit

size += 4;
l = va_arg(ap, int32_t);
packi32(buf, l);
buf += 4;
break;

case 'c': // 8-bit

size += 1;
c = (int8_t)va_arg(ap, int); // promoted
*buf++ = (c>>0)&0xff;
break;

case 'f': // float

size += 4;
f = (float32_t)va_arg(ap, double); // promoted
l = pack754_32(f); // convert to IEEE 754
packi32(buf, l);
buf += 4;
break;

case 's': // string

s = va_arg(ap, char*);
len = strlen(s);
size += len + 2;
packi16(buf, len);
buf += 2;
memcpy(buf, s, len);
buf += len;
break;
}
 }

va_end(ap);

return size;
}

/*
** unpack() -- unpack data dictated by the format string
into the buffer
*/
void unpack(unsigned char *buf, char *format, ...)
{
va_list ap;
int16_t *h;
int32_t *l;
int32_t pf;
int8_t *c;
float32_t *f;
char *s;
int32_t len, count, maxstrlen=0;

va_start(ap, format);

for(; *format != '\0'; format++) {

switch(*format) {
case 'h': // 16-bit
h = va_arg(ap, int16_t*);
*h = unpacki16(buf);
buf += 2;
break;

case 'l': // 32-bit

l = va_arg(ap, int32_t*);
*l = unpacki32(buf);
buf += 4;
break;

case 'c': // 8-bit

c = va_arg(ap, int8_t*);
*c = *buf++;
break;

case 'f': // float

f = va_arg(ap, float32_t*);
pf = unpacki32(buf);
buf += 4;
*f = unpack754_32(pf);
break;

case 's': // string

s = va_arg(ap, char*);
len = unpacki16(buf);
buf += 2;
if (maxstrlen > 0 && len > maxstrlen) count =
maxstrlen - 1;
else count = len;
memcpy(s, buf, count);
s[count] = '\0';
 buf += len;
break;

default:
if (isdigit(*format)) { // track max str len
maxstrlen = maxstrlen * 10 + (*format-'0');
}
}

if (!isdigit(*format)) maxstrlen = 0;
}

va_end(ap);
}

And here is a demonstration program of the above code that packs some data
into buf and then unpacks it into variables. Note that when calling uunnppaacckk(())
with a string argument (format specifier "s"), it's wise to put a maximum length
count in front of it to prevent a buffer overrun, e.g. "96s". Be wary when
unpacking data you get over the network—a malicious user might send badly-
constructed packets in an effort to attack your system!

#include <stdio.h>

// various bits for floating point types--

// varies for different architectures
typedef float float32_t;
typedef double float64_t;

int main(void)
{
unsigned char buf[1024];
int8_t magic;
int16_t monkeycount;
int32_t altitude;
float32_t absurdityfactor;
char *s = "Great unmitigated Zot! You've found the
Runestaff!";
char s2[96];
int16_t packetsize, ps2;

packetsize = pack(buf, "chhlsf", (int8_t)'B',

(int16_t)0, (int16_t)37,
(int32_t)-5, s, (float32_t)-3490.6677);
packi16(buf+1, packetsize); // store packet size in
packet for kicks

printf("packet is %" PRId32 " bytes\n", packetsize);

unpack(buf, "chhl96sf", &magic, &ps2, &monkeycount,

&altitude, s2,
&absurdityfactor);

printf("'%c' %" PRId32" %" PRId16 " %" PRId32

" \"%s\" %f\n", magic, ps2, monkeycount,
altitude, s2, absurdityfactor);

return 0;
}

Whether you roll your own code or use someone else's, it's a good idea to have a
general set of data packing routines for the sake of keeping bugs in check, rather
than packing each bit by hand each time.

When packing the data, what's a good format to use? Excellent question.
Fortunately, RFC 4506, the External Data Representation Standard, already
defines binary formats for a bunch of different types, like floating point types,
integer types, arrays, raw data, etc. I suggest conforming to that if you're going
to roll the data yourself. But you're not obligated to. The Packet Police are not
right outside your door. At least, I don't think they are.

In any case, encoding the data somehow or another before you send it is the
right way of doing things!

7.5. Son of Data Encapsulation

What does it really mean to encapsulate data, anyway? In the simplest case, it
means you'll stick a header on there with either some identifying information or a
packet length, or both.

What should your header look like? Well, it's just some binary data that
represents whatever you feel is necessary to complete your project.

Wow. That's vague.

Okay. For instance, let's say you have a multi-user chat program that uses
SOCK_STREAMs. When a user types ("says") something, two pieces of
information need to be transmitted to the server: what was said and who said it.

So far so good? "What's the problem?" you're asking.

The problem is that the messages can be of varying lengths. One person named
"tom" might say, "Hi", and another person named "Benjamin" might say, "Hey
guys what is up?"

So you sseenndd(()) all this stuff to the clients as it comes in. Your outgoing data
stream looks like this:

t o m H i B e n j a m i n H e y g u y s w h a t i s u p ?

And so on. How does the client know when one message starts and another
stops? You could, if you wanted, make all messages the same length and just call
the sseennddaallll(()) we implemented, above. But that wastes bandwidth! We don't
want to sseenndd(()) 1024 bytes just so "tom" can say "Hi".

So we encapsulate the data in a tiny header and packet structure. Both the client
and server know how to pack and unpack (sometimes referred to as "marshal"
and "unmarshal") this data. Don't look now, but we're starting to define a
protocol that describes how a client and server communicate!
 In this case, let's assume the user name is a fixed length of 8 characters, padded
with '\0'. And then let's assume the data is variable length, up to a maximum of
128 characters. Let's have a look a sample packet structure that we might use in
this situation:

1. len (1 byte, unsigned)—The total length of the packet, counting the 8-byte user
name and chat data.
2. name (8 bytes)—The user's name, NUL-padded if necessary.
3. chatdata (n-bytes)—The data itself, no more than 128 bytes. The length of the
packet should be calculated as the length of this data plus 8 (the length of the
name field, above).

Why did I choose the 8-byte and 128-byte limits for the fields? I pulled them out
of the air, assuming they'd be long enough. Maybe, though, 8 bytes is too
restrictive for your needs, and you can have a 30-byte name field, or whatever.
The choice is up to you.

Using the above packet definition, the first packet would consist of the following
information (in hex and ASCII):

0A 74 6F 6D 00 00 00 00 00 48 69
(length) T o m (padding) H i

And the second is similar:

18 42 65 6E 6A 61 6D 69 6E 48 65 79 20 67 75 79
73 20 77 ...
(length) B e n j a m i n H e y g u y
s w ...

(The length is stored in Network Byte Order, of course. In this case, it's only one
byte so it doesn't matter, but generally speaking you'll want all your binary
integers to be stored in Network Byte Order in your packets.)

When you're sending this data, you should be safe and use a command similar to
sseennddaallll(()), above, so you know all the data is sent, even if it takes multiple calls
to sseenndd(()) to get it all out.

Likewise, when you're receiving this data, you need to do a bit of extra work. To
be safe, you should assume that you might receive a partial packet (like maybe
we receive "18 42 65 6E 6A" from Benjamin, above, but that's all we get in
this call to rreeccvv(())). We need to call rreeccvv(()) over and over again until the packet
is completely received.

But how? Well, we know the number of bytes we need to receive in total for the
packet to be complete, since that number is tacked on the front of the packet. We
also know the maximum packet size is 1+8+128, or 137 bytes (because that's
how we defined the packet.)

There are actually a couple things you can do here. Since you know every packet
starts off with a length, you can call rreeccvv(()) just to get the packet length. Then
once you have that, you can call it again specifying exactly the remaining length
of the packet (possibly repeatedly to get all the data) until you have the complete
packet. The advantage of this method is that you only need a buffer large enough
for one packet, while the disadvantage is that you need to call rreeccvv(()) at least
twice to get all the data.

Another option is just to call rreeccvv(()) and say the amount you're willing to receive
is the maximum number of bytes in a packet. Then whatever you get, stick it onto
the back of a buffer, and finally check to see if the packet is complete. Of course,
you might get some of the next packet, so you'll need to have room for that.

What you can do is declare an array big enough for two packets. This is your
work array where you will reconstruct packets as they arrive.

Every time you rreeccvv(()) data, you'll append it into the work buffer and check to
see if the packet is complete. That is, the number of bytes in the buffer is greater
than or equal to the length specified in the header (+1, because the length in the
header doesn't include the byte for the length itself.) If the number of bytes in
the buffer is less than 1, the packet is not complete, obviously. You have to make
a special case for this, though, since the first byte is garbage and you can't rely
on it for the correct packet length.

Once the packet is complete, you can do with it what you will. Use it, and remove
it from your work buffer.

Whew! Are you juggling that in your head yet? Well, here's the second of the
one-two punch: you might have read past the end of one packet and onto the
next in a single rreeccvv(()) call. That is, you have a work buffer with one complete
packet, and an incomplete part of the next packet! Bloody heck. (But this is why
you made your work buffer large enough to hold two packets—in case this
happened!)

Since you know the length of the first packet from the header, and you've been
keeping track of the number of bytes in the work buffer, you can subtract and
calculate how many of the bytes in the work buffer belong to the second
(incomplete) packet. When you've handled the first one, you can clear it out of
the work buffer and move the partial second packet down the to front of the
buffer so it's all ready to go for the next rreeccvv(()).

(Some of you readers will note that actually moving the partial second packet to
the beginning of the work buffer takes time, and the program can be coded to not
require this by using a circular buffer. Unfortunately for the rest of you, a
discussion on circular buffers is beyond the scope of this article. If you're still
curious, grab a data structures book and go from there.)

I never said it was easy. Ok, I did say it was easy. And it is; you just need practice
and pretty soon it'll come to you naturally. By Excalibur I swear it!

7.6. Broadcast Packets—Hello, World!

So far, this guide has talked about sending data from one host to one other host.
But it is possible, I insist, that you can, with the proper authority, send data to
 multiple hosts at the same time!

With UDP (only UDP, not TCP) and standard IPv4, this is done through a
mechanism called broadcasting. With IPv6, broadcasting isn't supported, and you
have to resort to the often superior technique of multicasting, which, sadly I
won't be discussing at this time. But enough of the starry-eyed future—we're
stuck in the 32-bit present.

But wait! You can't just run off and start broadcasting willy-nilly; You have to set
the socket option SO_BROADCAST before you can send a broadcast packet out on
the network. It's like a one of those little plastic covers they put over the missile
launch switch! That's just how much power you hold in your hands!

But seriously, though, there is a danger to using broadcast packets, and that is:
every system that receives a broadcast packet must undo all the onion-skin
layers of data encapsulation until it finds out what port the data is destined to.
And then it hands the data over or discards it. In either case, it's a lot of work for
each machine that receives the broadcast packet, and since it is all of them on
the local network, that could be a lot of machines doing a lot of unnecessary
work. When the game Doom first came out, this was a complaint about its
network code.

Now, there is more than one way to skin a cat... wait a minute. Is there really
more than one way to skin a cat? What kind of expression is that? Uh, and
likewise, there is more than one way to send a broadcast packet. So, to get to the
meat and potatoes of the whole thing: how do you specify the destination
address for a broadcast message? There are two common ways:

1. Send the data to a specific subnet's broadcast address. This is the subnet's
network number with all one-bits set for the host portion of the address. For
instance, at home my network is 192.168.1.0, my netmask is 255.255.255.0, so
the last byte of the address is my host number (because the first three bytes,
according to the netmask, are the network number). So my broadcast address is
192.168.1.255. Under Unix, the ifconfig command will actually give you all this
data. (If you're curious, the bitwise logic to get your broadcast address is
network_number OR (NOT netmask).) You can send this type of broadcast
packet to remote networks as well as your local network, but you run the risk of
the packet being dropped by the destination's router. (If they didn't drop it, then
some random smurf could start flooding their LAN with broadcast traffic.)
2. Send the data to the "global" broadcast address. This is 255.255.255.255, aka
INADDR_BROADCAST. Many machines will automatically bitwise AND this with
your network number to convert it to a network broadcast address, but some
won't. It varies. Routers do not forward this type of broadcast packet off your
local network, ironically enough.

So what happens if you try to send data on the broadcast address without first
setting the SO_BROADCAST socket option? Well, let's fire up good old talker and
listener and see what happens.

$ talker 192.168.1.2 foo

sent 3 bytes to 192.168.1.2
$ talker 192.168.1.255 foo
sendto: Permission denied
$ talker 255.255.255.255 foo
sendto: Permission denied

Yes, it's not happy at all...because we didn't set the SO_BROADCAST socket
option. Do that, and now you can sseennddttoo(()) anywhere you want!

In fact, that's the only difference between a UDP application that can broadcast
and one that can't. So let's take the old talker application and add one section
that sets the SO_BROADCAST socket option. We'll call this program
broadcaster.c:

/*
** broadcaster.c -- a datagram "client" like talker.c, except
** this one can broadcast
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <netdb.h>

#define SERVERPORT 4950 // the port users will be

connecting to

int main(int argc, char *argv[])

{
int sockfd;
struct sockaddr_in their_addr; // connector's address
information
struct hostent *he;
int numbytes;
int broadcast = 1;
//char broadcast = '1'; // if that doesn't work, try this

if (argc != 3) {
fprintf(stderr,"usage: broadcaster hostname
message\n");
exit(1);
}

if ((he=gethostbyname(argv[1])) == NULL) { // get the

host info
perror("gethostbyname");
exit(1);
}

if ((sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0)) == -1) {

perror("socket");
exit(1);
 }

// this call is what allows broadcast packets to be sent:

if (setsockopt(sockfd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_BROADCAST,
&broadcast,
sizeof broadcast) == -1) {
perror("setsockopt (SO_BROADCAST)");
exit(1);
}

their_addr.sin_family = AF_INET; // host byte order

their_addr.sin_port = htons(SERVERPORT); // short,
network byte order
their_addr.sin_addr = *((struct in_addr *)he->h_addr);
memset(their_addr.sin_zero, '\0', sizeof
their_addr.sin_zero);

if ((numbytes=sendto(sockfd, argv[2], strlen(argv[2]), 0,

(struct sockaddr *)&their_addr, sizeof
their_addr)) == -1) {
perror("sendto");
exit(1);
}

printf("sent %d bytes to %s\n", numbytes,

inet_ntoa(their_addr.sin_addr));

close(sockfd);

return 0;
}

What's different between this and a "normal" UDP client/server situation?

Nothing! (With the exception of the client being allowed to send broadcast
packets in this case.) As such, go ahead and run the old UDP listener program in
one window, and broadcaster in another. You should be now be able to do all
those sends that failed, above.

$ broadcaster 192.168.1.2 foo

sent 3 bytes to 192.168.1.2
$ broadcaster 192.168.1.255 foo
sent 3 bytes to 192.168.1.255
$ broadcaster 255.255.255.255 foo
sent 3 bytes to 255.255.255.255

And you should see listener responding that it got the packets. (If listener
doesn't respond, it could be because it's bound to an IPv6 address. Try changing
the AF_UNSPEC in listener.c to AF_INET to force IPv4.)

Well, that's kind of exciting. But now fire up listener on another machine next to
you on the same network so that you have two copies going, one on each
machine, and run broadcaster again with your broadcast address... Hey! Both
listeners get the packet even though you only called sseennddttoo(()) once! Cool!

If the listener gets data you send directly to it, but not data on the broadcast
address, it could be that you have a firewall on your local machine that is
blocking the packets. (Yes, Pat and Bapper, thank you for realizing before I did
that this is why my sample code wasn't working. I told you I'd mention you in the
guide, and here you are. So nyah.)

Again, be careful with broadcast packets. Since every machine on the LAN will be
forced to deal with the packet whether it rreeccvvffrroomm(())s it or not, it can present
quite a load to the entire computing network. They are definitely to be used
sparingly and appropriately.

8. Common Questions

Where can I get those header files?

If you don't have them on your system already, you probably don't need
them. Check the manual for your particular platform. If you're building for
Windows, you only need to #include <winsock.h>.

What do I do when bbiinndd(()) reports "Address already in use"?

You have to use sseettssoocckkoopptt(()) with the SO_REUSEADDR option on the
listening socket. Check out the section on bbiinndd(()) and the section on
sseelleecctt(()) for an example.

How do I get a list of open sockets on the system?

Use the netstat. Check the man page for full details, but you should get
some good output just typing:

$ netstat

The only trick is determining which socket is associated with which

program. :-)

How can I view the routing table?

Run the route command (in /sbin on most Linuxes) or the command
netstat -r.

How can I run the client and server programs if I only have one computer?
Don't I need a network to write network programs?
Fortunately for you, virtually all machines implement a loopback network
"device" that sits in the kernel and pretends to be a network card. (This is
the interface listed as "lo" in the routing table.)

Pretend you're logged into a machine named "goat". Run the client in one
window and the server in another. Or start the server in the background
("server &") and run the client in the same window. The upshot of the
loopback device is that you can either client goat or client localhost (since
"localhost" is likely defined in your /etc/hosts file) and you'll have the
client talking to the server without a network!

In short, no changes are necessary to any of the code to make it run on a

single non-networked machine! Huzzah!
How can I tell if the remote side has closed connection?
You can tell because rreeccvv(()) will return 0.

How do I implement a "ping" utility? What is ICMP? Where can I find out more
about raw sockets and SSOOCCKK__RRAAWW?
All your raw sockets questions will be answered in W. Richard Stevens'
UNIX Network Programming books. Also, look in the ping/ subdirectory in
Stevens' UNIX Network Programming source code, available online.

How do I change or shorten the timeout on a call to ccoonnnneecctt(())?

Instead of giving you exactly the same answer that W. Richard Stevens
would give you, I'll just refer you to lib/connect_nonb.c in the UNIX
Network Programming source code.

The gist of it is that you make a socket descriptor with ssoocckkeett(()), set it to
non-blocking, call ccoonnnneecctt(()), and if all goes well ccoonnnneecctt(()) will return
-1 immediately and errno will be set to EINPROGRESS. Then you call
sseelleecctt(()) with whatever timeout you want, passing the socket descriptor
in both the read and write sets. If it doesn't timeout, it means the
ccoonnnneecctt(()) call completed. At this point, you'll have to use
ggeettssoocckkoopptt(()) with the SO_ERROR option to get the return value from the
ccoonnnneecctt(()) call, which should be zero if there was no error.

Finally, you'll probably want to set the socket back to be blocking again
before you start transferring data over it.

Notice that this has the added benefit of allowing your program to do
something else while it's connecting, too. You could, for example, set the
timeout to something low, like 500 ms, and update an indicator onscreen
each timeout, then call sseelleecctt(()) again. When you've called sseelleecctt(())
and timed-out, say, 20 times, you'll know it's time to give up on the
connection.

Like I said, check out Stevens' source for a perfectly excellent example.

How do I build for Windows?

First, delete Windows and install Linux or BSD. };-). No, actually, just see
the section on building for Windows in the introduction.

How do I build for Solaris/SunOS? I keep getting linker errors when I try to
compile!
The linker errors happen because Sun boxes don't automatically compile in
the socket libraries. See the section on building for Solaris/SunOS in the
introduction for an example of how to do this.

Why does sseelleecctt(()) keep falling out on a signal?

Signals tend to cause blocked system calls to return -1 with errno set to
EINTR. When you set up a signal handler with ssiiggaaccttiioonn(()), you can set
the flag SA_RESTART, which is supposed to restart the system call after it
was interrupted.
 Naturally, this doesn't always work.

My favorite solution to this involves a goto statement. You know this

irritates your professors to no end, so go for it!

select_restart:
if ((err = select(fdmax+1, &readfds, NULL, NULL, NULL))
== -1) {
if (errno == EINTR) {
// some signal just interrupted us, so restart
goto select_restart;
}
// handle the real error here:
perror("select");
}

Sure, you don't need to use goto in this case; you can use other structures
to control it. But I think the goto statement is actually cleaner.

How can I implement a timeout on a call to rreeccvv(())?

Use sseelleecctt(())! It allows you to specify a timeout parameter for socket
descriptors that you're looking to read from. Or, you could wrap the entire
functionality in a single function, like this:

#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int recvtimeout(int s, char *buf, int len, int timeout)

{
fd_set fds;
int n;
struct timeval tv;

// set up the file descriptor set

FD_ZERO(&fds);
FD_SET(s, &fds);

// set up the struct timeval for the timeout

tv.tv_sec = timeout;
tv.tv_usec = 0;

// wait until timeout or data received

n = select(s+1, &fds, NULL, NULL, &tv);
if (n == 0) return -2; // timeout!
if (n == -1) return -1; // error

// data must be here, so do a normal recv()

return recv(s, buf, len, 0);
}
.
.
.
// Sample call to recvtimeout():
n = recvtimeout(s, buf, sizeof buf, 10); // 10 second
timeout
 if (n == -1) {
// error occurred
perror("recvtimeout");
}
else if (n == -2) {
// timeout occurred
} else {
// got some data in buf
}
.
.
.

Notice that rreeccvvttiimmeeoouutt(()) returns -2 in case of a timeout. Why not

return 0? Well, if you recall, a return value of 0 on a call to rreeccvv(()) means
that the remote side closed the connection. So that return value is already
spoken for, and -1 means "error", so I chose -2 as my timeout indicator.

How do I encrypt or compress the data before sending it through the socket?
One easy way to do encryption is to use SSL (secure sockets layer), but
that's beyond the scope of this guide. (Check out the OpenSSL project for
more info.)

But assuming you want to plug in or implement your own compressor or

encryption system, it's just a matter of thinking of your data as running
through a sequence of steps between both ends. Each step changes the
data in some way.

1. server reads data from file (or wherever)

2. server encrypts/compresses data (you add this part)
3. server sseenndd(())s encrypted data

Now the other way around:

1. client rreeccvv(())s encrypted data

2. client decrypts/decompresses data (you add this part)
3. client writes data to file (or wherever)

If you're going to compress and encrypt, just remember to compress first.

:-)

Just as long as the client properly undoes what the server does, the data
will be fine in the end no matter how many intermediate steps you add.

So all you need to do to use my code is to find the place between where the
data is read and the data is sent (using sseenndd(())) over the network, and
stick some code in there that does the encryption.

What is this "PPFF__IINNEETT" I keep seeing? Is it related to AAFF__IINNEETT?

Yes, yes it is. See the section on ssoocckkeett(()) for details.
How can I write a server that accepts shell commands from a client and
executes them?
For simplicity, lets say the client ccoonnnneecctt(())s, sseenndd(())s, and cclloossee(())s
the connection (that is, there are no subsequent system calls without the
client connecting again.)

The process the client follows is this:

1. ccoonnnneecctt(()) to server
2. sseenndd((""//ssbbiinn//llss >> //ttmmpp//cclliieenntt..oouutt""))
3. cclloossee(()) the connection

Meanwhile, the server is handling the data and executing it:

1. aacccceepptt(()) the connection from the client

2. rreeccvv((ssttrr)) the command string
3. cclloossee(()) the connection
4. ssyysstteemm((ssttrr)) to run the command

Beware! Having the server execute what the client says is like giving remote
shell access and people can do things to your account when they connect
to the server. For instance, in the above example, what if the client sends
"rm -rf ~"? It deletes everything in your account, that's what!

So you get wise, and you prevent the client from using any except for a
couple utilities that you know are safe, like the foobar utility:

if (!strncmp(str, "foobar", 6)) {

sprintf(sysstr, "%s > /tmp/server.out", str);
system(sysstr);
}

But you're still unsafe, unfortunately: what if the client enters "foobar; rm
-rf ~"? The safest thing to do is to write a little routine that puts an escape
("\") character in front of all non-alphanumeric characters (including
spaces, if appropriate) in the arguments for the command.

As you can see, security is a pretty big issue when the server starts
executing things the client sends.

I'm sending a slew of data, but when I rreeccvv(()), it only receives 536 bytes or
1460 bytes at a time. But if I run it on my local machine, it receives all the data
at the same time. What's going on?
You're hitting the MTU—the maximum size the physical medium can
handle. On the local machine, you're using the loopback device which can
handle 8K or more no problem. But on Ethernet, which can only handle
1500 bytes with a header, you hit that limit. Over a modem, with 576 MTU
(again, with header), you hit the even lower limit.

You have to make sure all the data is being sent, first of all. (See the
sseennddaallll(()) function implementation for details.) Once you're sure of that,
 then you need to call rreeccvv(()) in a loop until all your data is read.

Read the section Son of Data Encapsulation for details on receiving

complete packets of data using multiple calls to rreeccvv(()).

I'm on a Windows box and I don't have the ffoorrkk(()) system call or any kind of
ssttrruucctt ssiiggaaccttiioonn. What to do?
If they're anywhere, they'll be in POSIX libraries that may have shipped
with your compiler. Since I don't have a Windows box, I really can't tell you
the answer, but I seem to remember that Microsoft has a POSIX
compatibility layer and that's where ffoorrkk(()) would be. (And maybe even
sigaction.)

Search the help that came with VC++ for "fork" or "POSIX" and see if it
gives you any clues.

If that doesn't work at all, ditch the ffoorrkk(())/sigaction stuff and replace
it with the Win32 equivalent: CCrreeaatteePPrroocceessss(()). I don't know how to use
CCrreeaatteePPrroocceessss(())—it takes a bazillion arguments, but it should be
covered in the docs that came with VC++.

I'm behind a firewall—how do I let people outside the firewall know my IP

address so they can connect to my machine?
Unfortunately, the purpose of a firewall is to prevent people outside the
firewall from connecting to machines inside the firewall, so allowing them
to do so is basically considered a breach of security.

This isn't to say that all is lost. For one thing, you can still often
ccoonnnneecctt(()) through the firewall if it's doing some kind of masquerading or
NAT or something like that. Just design your programs so that you're
always the one initiating the connection, and you'll be fine.

If that's not satisfactory, you can ask your sysadmins to poke a hole in the
firewall so that people can connect to you. The firewall can forward to you
either through it's NAT software, or through a proxy or something like that.

Be aware that a hole in the firewall is nothing to be taken lightly. You have
to make sure you don't give bad people access to the internal network; if
you're a beginner, it's a lot harder to make software secure than you might
imagine.

Don't make your sysadmin mad at me. ;-)

How do I write a packet sniffer? How do I put my Ethernet interface into

promiscuous mode?
For those not in the know, when a network card is in "promiscuous mode",
it will forward ALL packets to the operating system, not just those that were
addressed to this particular machine. (We're talking Ethernet-layer
addresses here, not IP addresses--but since ethernet is lower-layer than IP,
all IP addresses are effectively forwarded as well. See the section Low Level
Nonsense and Network Theory for more info.)
 This is the basis for how a packet sniffer works. It puts the interface into
promiscuous mode, then the OS gets every single packet that goes by on
the wire. You'll have a socket of some type that you can read this data
from.

Unfortunately, the answer to the question varies depending on the

platform, but if you Google for, for instance, "windows promiscuous ioctl"
you'll probably get somewhere. There's what looks like a decent writeup in
Linux Journal, as well.

How can I set a custom timeout value for a TCP or UDP socket?
It depends on your system. You might search the net for SO_RCVTIMEO
and SO_SNDTIMEO (for use with sseettssoocckkoopptt(())) to see if your system
supports such functionality.

The Linux man page suggests using aallaarrmm(()) or sseettiittiimmeerr(()) as a

substitute.

How can I tell which ports are available to use? Is there a list of "official" port
numbers?
Usually this isn't an issue. If you're writing, say, a web server, then it's a
good idea to use the well-known port 80 for your software. If you're writing
just your own specialized server, then choose a port at random (but greater
than 1023) and give it a try.

If the port is already in use, you'll get an "Address already in use" error
when you try to bbiinndd(()). Choose another port. (It's a good idea to allow
the user of your software to specify an alternate port either with a config
file or a command line switch.)

There is a list of official port numbers maintained by the Internet Assigned

Numbers Authority (IANA). Just because something (over 1023) is in that
list doesn't mean you can't use the port. For instance, Id Software's DOOM
uses the same port as "mdqs", whatever that is. All that matters is that no
one else on the same machine is using that port when you want to use it.

9. Man Pages

In the Unix world, there are a lot of manuals. They have little sections that
describe individual functions that you have at your disposal.

Of course, manual would be too much of a thing to type. I mean, no one in the
Unix world, including myself, likes to type that much. Indeed I could go on and on
at great length about how much I prefer to be terse but instead I shall be brief
and not bore you with long-winded diatribes about how utterly amazingly brief I
prefer to be in virtually all circumstances in their entirety.

[Applause]

Thank you. What I am getting at is that these pages are called "man pages" in
the Unix world, and I have included my own personal truncated variant here for
your reading enjoyment. The thing is, many of these functions are way more
general purpose than I'm letting on, but I'm only going to present the parts that
are relevant for Internet Sockets Programming.

But wait! That's not all that's wrong with my man pages:

They are incomplete and only show the basics from the guide.
There are many more man pages than this in the real world.
They are different than the ones on your system.
The header files might be different for certain functions on your system.
The function parameters might be different for certain functions on your system.

If you want the real information, check your local Unix man pages by typing man
whatever, where "whatever" is something that you're incredibly interested in,
such as "accept". (I'm sure Microsoft Visual Studio has something similar in
their help section. But "man" is better because it is one byte more concise than
"help". Unix wins again!)

So, if these are so flawed, why even include them at all in the Guide? Well, there
are a few reasons, but the best are that (a) these versions are geared specifically
toward network programming and are easier to digest than the real ones, and (b)
these versions contain examples!

Oh! And speaking of the examples, I don't tend to put in all the error checking
because it really increases the length of the code. But you should absolutely do
error checking pretty much any time you make any of the system calls unless
you're totally 100% sure it's not going to fail, and you should probably do it even
then!

9.1. accept()
Accept an incoming connection on a listening socket

Prototypes

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int accept(int s, struct sockaddr *addr, socklen_t *addrlen);

Description

Once you've gone through the trouble of getting a SOCK_STREAM socket and
setting it up for incoming connections with lliisstteenn(()), then you call aacccceepptt(())
to actually get yourself a new socket descriptor to use for subsequent
communication with the newly connected client.

The old socket that you are using for listening is still there, and will be used for
further aacccceepptt(()) calls as they come in.
 s The lliisstteenn(())ing socket descriptor.

addr This is filled in with the address of the site that's connecting
to you.

addrlen This is filled in with the ssiizzeeooff(()) the structure returned in

the addr parameter. You can safely ignore it if you assume
you're getting a struct sockaddr_in back, which you
know you are, because that's the type you passed in for
addr.

aacccceepptt(()) will normally block, and you can use sseelleecctt(()) to peek on the
listening socket descriptor ahead of time to see if it's "ready to read". If so, then
there's a new connection waiting to be aacccceepptt(())ed! Yay! Alternatively, you could
set the O_NONBLOCK flag on the listening socket using ffccnnttll(()), and then it will
never block, choosing instead to return -1 with errno set to EWOULDBLOCK.

The socket descriptor returned by aacccceepptt(()) is a bona fide socket descriptor,

open and connected to the remote host. You have to cclloossee(()) it when you're
done with it.

Return Value

aacccceepptt(()) returns the newly connected socket descriptor, or -1 on error, with

errno set appropriately.

Example

struct sockaddr_storage their_addr;

socklen_t addr_size;
struct addrinfo hints, *res;
int sockfd, new_fd;

// first, load up address structs with getaddrinfo():

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // use IPv4 or IPv6, whichever
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE; // fill in my IP for me

getaddrinfo(NULL, MYPORT, &hints, &res);

// make a socket, bind it, and listen on it:

sockfd = socket(res->ai_family, res->ai_socktype,

res->ai_protocol);
bind(sockfd, res->ai_addr, res->ai_addrlen);
listen(sockfd, BACKLOG);

// now accept an incoming connection:

addr_size = sizeof their_addr;
new_fd = accept(sockfd, (struct sockaddr *)&their_addr,
&addr_size);

// ready to communicate on socket descriptor new_fd!

See Also

ssoocckkeett(()), ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()), lliisstteenn(()), struct sockaddr_in

9.2. bind()
Associate a socket with an IP address and port number

Prototypes

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int bind(int sockfd, struct sockaddr *my_addr, socklen_t

addrlen);

Description

When a remote machine wants to connect to your server program, it needs two
pieces of information: the IP address and the port number. The bbiinndd(()) call
allows you to do just that.

First, you call ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) to load up a ssttrruucctt ssoocckkaaddddrr with the

destination address and port information. Then you call ssoocckkeett(()) to get a
socket descriptor, and then you pass the socket and address into bbiinndd(()), and
the IP address and port are magically (using actual magic) bound to the socket!

If you don't know your IP address, or you know you only have one IP address on
the machine, or you don't care which of the machine's IP addresses is used, you
can simply pass the AI_PASSIVE flag in the hints parameter to
ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()). What this does is fill in the IP address part of the ssttrruucctt
ssoocckkaaddddrr with a special value that tells bbiinndd(()) that it should automatically fill
in this host's IP address.

What what? What special value is loaded into the ssttrruucctt ssoocckkaaddddrr's IP
address to cause it to auto-fill the address with the current host? I'll tell you, but
keep in mind this is only if you're filling out the struct sockaddr by hand; if
not, use the results from ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()), as per above. In IPv4, the
sin_addr.s_addr field of the struct sockaddr_in structure is set to
INADDR_ANY. In IPv6, the sin6_addr field of the struct sockaddr_in6
structure is assigned into from the global variable in6addr_any. Or, if you're
declaring a new struct in6_addr, you can initialize it to IN6ADDR_ANY_INIT.

Lastly, the addrlen parameter should be set to sizeof my_addr.

Return Value

Returns zero on success, or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.)

Example

// modern way of doing things with getaddrinfo()

struct addrinfo hints, *res;

int sockfd;

// first, load up address structs with getaddrinfo():

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // use IPv4 or IPv6, whichever
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE; // fill in my IP for me

getaddrinfo(NULL, "3490", &hints, &res);

// make a socket:
// (you should actually walk the "res" linked list and error-
check!)

sockfd = socket(res->ai_family, res->ai_socktype,

res->ai_protocol);

// bind it to the port we passed in to getaddrinfo():

bind(sockfd, res->ai_addr, res->ai_addrlen);

// example of packing a struct by hand, IPv4

struct sockaddr_in myaddr;

int s;

myaddr.sin_family = AF_INET;
myaddr.sin_port = htons(3490);

// you can specify an IP address:

inet_pton(AF_INET, "63.161.169.137", &(myaddr.sin_addr));

// or you can let it automatically select one:

myaddr.sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY;

s = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);

bind(s, (struct sockaddr*)&myaddr, sizeof myaddr);

See Also

ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()), ssoocckkeett(()), struct sockaddr_in, struct in_addr

9.3. connect()
Connect a socket to a server
Prototypes

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int connect(int sockfd, const struct sockaddr * serv_addr,

socklen_t addrlen);

Description

Once you've built a socket descriptor with the ssoocckkeett(()) call, you can
ccoonnnneecctt(()) that socket to a remote server using the well-named ccoonnnneecctt(())
system call. All you need to do is pass it the socket descriptor and the address of
the server you're interested in getting to know better. (Oh, and the length of the
address, which is commonly passed to functions like this.)

Usually this information comes along as the result of a call to ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()),

but you can fill out your own struct sockaddr if you want to.

If you haven't yet called bbiinndd(()) on the socket descriptor, it is automatically

bound to your IP address and a random local port. This is usually just fine with
you if you're not a server, since you really don't care what your local port is; you
only care what the remote port is so you can put it in the serv_addr parameter.
You can call bbiinndd(()) if you really want your client socket to be on a specific IP
address and port, but this is pretty rare.

Once the socket is ccoonnnneecctt(())ed, you're free to sseenndd(()) and rreeccvv(()) data on it
to your heart's content.

Special note: if you ccoonnnneecctt(()) a SOCK_DGRAM UDP socket to a remote host, you
can use sseenndd(()) and rreeccvv(()) as well as sseennddttoo(()) and rreeccvvffrroomm(()). If you
want.

Return Value

Returns zero on success, or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.)

Example

// connect to www.example.com port 80 (http)

struct addrinfo hints, *res;

int sockfd;

// first, load up address structs with getaddrinfo():

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // use IPv4 or IPv6, whichever
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;

// we could put "80" instead on "http" on the next line:

getaddrinfo("www.example.com", "http", &hints, &res);

// make a socket:
sockfd = socket(res->ai_family, res->ai_socktype,
res->ai_protocol);

// connect it to the address and port we passed in to

getaddrinfo():

connect(sockfd, res->ai_addr, res->ai_addrlen);

See Also

ssoocckkeett(()), bbiinndd(())

9.4. close()
Close a socket descriptor

Prototypes

#include <unistd.h>

int close(int s);

Description

After you've finished using the socket for whatever demented scheme you have
concocted and you don't want to sseenndd(()) or rreeccvv(()) or, indeed, do anything else
at all with the socket, you can cclloossee(()) it, and it'll be freed up, never to be used
again.

The remote side can tell if this happens one of two ways. One: if the remote side
calls rreeccvv(()), it will return 0. Two: if the remote side calls sseenndd(()), it'll receive a
signal SIGPIPE and send() will return -1 and errno will be set to EPIPE.

Windows users: the function you need to use is called cclloosseessoocckkeett(()), not
cclloossee(()). If you try to use cclloossee(()) on a socket descriptor, it's possible
Windows will get angry... And you wouldn't like it when it's angry.

Return Value

Returns zero on success, or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.)

Example

s = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);

.
.
.
// a whole lotta stuff...*BRRRONNNN!*
.
.
.
close(s); // not much to it, really.
See Also

ssoocckkeett(()), sshhuuttddoowwnn(())

9.5. getaddrinfo(), freeaddrinfo(),

gai_strerror()
Get information about a host name and/or service and load up a
struct sockaddr with the result.

Prototypes

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netdb.h>

int getaddrinfo(const char *nodename, const char *servname,

const struct addrinfo *hints, struct
addrinfo **res);

void freeaddrinfo(struct addrinfo *ai);

const char *gai_strerror(int ecode);

struct addrinfo {
int ai_flags; // AI_PASSIVE, AI_CANONNAME, ...
int ai_family; // AF_xxx
int ai_socktype; // SOCK_xxx
int ai_protocol; // 0 (auto) or IPPROTO_TCP,
IPPROTO_UDP

socklen_t ai_addrlen; // length of ai_addr

char *ai_canonname; // canonical name for nodename
struct sockaddr *ai_addr; // binary address
struct addrinfo *ai_next; // next structure in linked list
};

Description

ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) is an excellent function that will return information on a

particular host name (such as its IP address) and load up a struct sockaddr
for you, taking care of the gritty details (like if it's IPv4 or IPv6.) It replaces the
old functions ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()) and ggeettsseerrvvbbyynnaammee(()).The description,
below, contains a lot of information that might be a little daunting, but actual
usage is pretty simple. It might be worth it to check out the examples first.

The host name that you're interested in goes in the nodename parameter. The
address can be either a host name, like "www.example.com", or an IPv4 or IPv6
address (passed as a string). This parameter can also be NULL if you're using the
AI_PASSIVE flag (see below.)

The servname parameter is basically the port number. It can be a port number
(passed as a string, like "80"), or it can be a service name, like "http" or "tftp" or
"smtp" or "pop", etc. Well-known service names can be found in the IANA Port
List or in your /etc/services file.

Lastly, for input parameters, we have hints. This is really where you get to
define what the ggeettaaddddiinnffoo(()) function is going to do. Zero the whole structure
before use with mmeemmsseett(()). Let's take a look at the fields you need to set up
before use.

The ai_flags can be set to a variety of things, but here are a couple important
ones. (Multiple flags can be specified by bitwise-ORing them together with the |
operator.) Check your man page for the complete list of flags.

AI_CANONNAME causes the ai_canonname of the result to the filled out with the
host's canonical (real) name. AI_PASSIVE causes the result's IP address to be
filled out with INADDR_ANY (IPv4)or in6addr_any (IPv6); this causes a
subsequent call to bbiinndd(()) to auto-fill the IP address of the struct sockaddr
with the address of the current host. That's excellent for setting up a server when
you don't want to hardcode the address.

If you do use the AI_PASSIVE, flag, then you can pass NULL in the nodename
(since bbiinndd(()) will fill it in for you later.)

Continuing on with the input paramters, you'll likely want to set ai_family to
AF_UNSPEC which tells ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()) to look for both IPv4 and IPv6
addresses. You can also restrict yourself to one or the other with AF_INET or
AF_INET6.

Next, the socktype field should be set to SOCK_STREAM or SOCK_DGRAM,

depending on which type of socket you want.

Finally, just leave ai_protocol at 0 to automatically choose your protocol type.

Now, after you get all that stuff in there, you can finally make the call to
ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(())!

Of course, this is where the fun begins. The res will now point to a linked list of
struct addrinfos, and you can go through this list to get all the addresses
that match what you passed in with the hints.

Now, it's possible to get some addresses that don't work for one reason or
another, so what the Linux man page does is loops through the list doing a call to
ssoocckkeett(()) and ccoonnnneecctt(()) (or bbiinndd(()) if you're setting up a server with the
AI_PASSIVE flag) until it succeeds.

Finally, when you're done with the linked list, you need to call ffrreeeeaaddddrriinnffoo(())
to free up the memory (or it will be leaked, and Some People will get upset.)

Return Value

Returns zero on success, or nonzero on error. If it returns nonzero, you can use
the function ggaaii__ssttrreerrrroorr(()) to get a printable version of the error code in the
return value.

Example

// code for a client connecting to a server

// namely a stream socket to www.example.com on port 80
(http)
// either IPv4 or IPv6

int sockfd;
struct addrinfo hints, *servinfo, *p;
int rv;

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // use AF_INET6 to force IPv6
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;

if ((rv = getaddrinfo("www.example.com", "http", &hints,

&servinfo)) != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "getaddrinfo: %s\n", gai_strerror(rv));
exit(1);
}

// loop through all the results and connect to the first we

can
for(p = servinfo; p != NULL; p = p->ai_next) {
if ((sockfd = socket(p->ai_family, p->ai_socktype,
p->ai_protocol)) == -1) {
perror("socket");
continue;
}

if (connect(sockfd, p->ai_addr, p->ai_addrlen) == -1) {

close(sockfd);
perror("connect");
continue;
}

break; // if we get here, we must have connected

successfully
}

if (p == NULL) {
// looped off the end of the list with no connection
fprintf(stderr, "failed to connect\n");
exit(2);
}

freeaddrinfo(servinfo); // all done with this structure

// code for a server waiting for connections

// namely a stream socket on port 3490, on this host's IP
// either IPv4 or IPv6.

int sockfd;
struct addrinfo hints, *servinfo, *p;
int rv;
memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);
hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // use AF_INET6 to force IPv6
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE; // use my IP address

if ((rv = getaddrinfo(NULL, "3490", &hints, &servinfo)) !=

0) {
fprintf(stderr, "getaddrinfo: %s\n", gai_strerror(rv));
exit(1);
}

// loop through all the results and bind to the first we can
for(p = servinfo; p != NULL; p = p->ai_next) {
if ((sockfd = socket(p->ai_family, p->ai_socktype,
p->ai_protocol)) == -1) {
perror("socket");
continue;
}

if (bind(sockfd, p->ai_addr, p->ai_addrlen) == -1) {

close(sockfd);
perror("bind");
continue;
}

break; // if we get here, we must have connected

successfully
}

if (p == NULL) {
// looped off the end of the list with no successful bind
fprintf(stderr, "failed to bind socket\n");
exit(2);
}

freeaddrinfo(servinfo); // all done with this structure

See Also

ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()), ggeettnnaammeeiinnffoo(())

9.6. gethostname()
Returns the name of the system

Prototypes

#include <sys/unistd.h>

int gethostname(char * name, size_t len);

Description

Your system has a name. They all do. This is a slightly more Unixy thing than the
rest of the networky stuff we've been talking about, but it still has its uses.

For instance, you can get your host name, and then call ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()) to
find out your IP address.

The parameter name should point to a buffer that will hold the host name, and
len is the size of that buffer in bytes. ggeetthhoossttnnaammee(()) won't overwrite the end
of the buffer (it might return an error, or it might just stop writing), and it will
NUL-terminate the string if there's room for it in the buffer.

Return Value

Returns zero on success, or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.)

Example

char hostname[128];

gethostname(hostname, sizeof hostname);

printf("My hostname: %s\n", hostname);

See Also

ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(())

9.7. gethostbyname(), gethostbyaddr()

Get an IP address for a hostname, or vice-versa

Prototypes

#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netdb.h>

struct hostent *gethostbyname(const char * name); //

DEPRECATED!
struct hostent *gethostbyaddr(const char * addr, int len, int
type);

Description

PLEASE NOTE: these two functions are superseded by getaddrinfo() and

getnameinfo()! In particular, ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()) doesn't work well with IPv6.

These functions map back and forth between host names and IP addresses. For
instance, if you have "www.example.com", you can use ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()) to
get its IP address and store it in a struct in_addr.

Conversely, if you have a struct in_addr or a struct in6_addr, you can

use ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(()) to get the hostname back. ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(()) is IPv6
compatible, but you should use the newer shinier ggeettnnaammeeiinnffoo(()) instead.
(If you have a string containing an IP address in dots-and-numbers format that
you want to look up the hostname of, you'd be better off using ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(())
with the AI_CANONNAME flag.)

ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()) takes a string like "www.yahoo.com", and returns a

struct hostent which contains tons of information, including the IP address.
(Other information is the official host name, a list of aliases, the address type, the
length of the addresses, and the list of addresses—it's a general-purpose
structure that's pretty easy to use for our specific purposes once you see how.)

ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(()) takes a struct in_addr or struct in6_addr and

brings you up a corresponding host name (if there is one), so it's sort of the
reverse of ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()). As for parameters, even though addr is a char*,
you actually want to pass in a pointer to a struct in_addr. len should be
sizeof(struct in_addr), and type should be AF_INET.

So what is this struct hostent that gets returned? It has a number of fields
that contain information about the host in question.

char *h_name The real canonical host name.

char **h_aliases A list of aliases that can be accessed with

arrays—the last element is NULL

int h_addrtype The result's address type, which really should be

AF_INET for our purposes.

int length The length of the addresses in bytes, which is 4 for

IP (version 4) addresses.

char A list of IP addresses for this host. Although this is a

**h_addr_list char**, it's really an array of struct in_addr*s
in disguise. The last array element is NULL.

h_addr A commonly defined alias for h_addr_list[0]. If

you just want any old IP address for this host (yeah,
they can have more than one) just use this field.

Return Value

Returns a pointer to a resultant struct hostent or success, or NULL on error.

Instead of the normal ppeerrrroorr(()) and all that stuff you'd normally use for error
reporting, these functions have parallel results in the variable h_errno, which
can be printed using the functions hheerrrroorr(()) or hhssttrreerrrroorr(()). These work just
like the classic errno, ppeerrrroorr(()), and ssttrreerrrroorr(()) functions you're used to.

Example

// THIS IS A DEPRECATED METHOD OF GETTING HOST NAMES

// use getaddrinfo() instead!

#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <netdb.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])

{
int i;
struct hostent *he;
struct in_addr **addr_list;

if (argc != 2) {
fprintf(stderr,"usage: ghbn hostname\n");
return 1;
}

if ((he = gethostbyname(argv[1])) == NULL) { // get the

host info
herror("gethostbyname");
return 2;
}

// print information about this host:

printf("Official name is: %s\n", he->h_name);
printf(" IP addresses: ");
addr_list = (struct in_addr **)he->h_addr_list;
for(i = 0; addr_list[i] != NULL; i++) {
printf("%s ", inet_ntoa(*addr_list[i]));
}
printf("\n");

return 0;
}

// THIS HAS BEEN SUPERCEDED

// use getnameinfo() instead!

struct hostent *he;

struct in_addr ipv4addr;
struct in6_addr ipv6addr;

inet_pton(AF_INET, "192.0.2.34", &ipv4addr);

he = gethostbyaddr(&ipv4addr, sizeof ipv4addr, AF_INET);
printf("Host name: %s\n", he->h_name);

inet_pton(AF_INET6, "2001:db8:63b3:1::beef", &ipv6addr);

he = gethostbyaddr(&ipv6addr, sizeof ipv6addr, AF_INET6);
printf("Host name: %s\n", he->h_name);

See Also

ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()), ggeettnnaammeeiinnffoo(()), ggeetthhoossttnnaammee(()), errno, ppeerrrroorr(()),

ssttrreerrrroorr(()), struct in_addr

9.8. getnameinfo()
Look up the host name and service name information for a given
struct sockaddr.

Prototypes

#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netdb.h>

int getnameinfo(const struct sockaddr *sa, socklen_t salen,

char *host, size_t hostlen,
char *serv, size_t servlen, int flags);

Description

This function is the opposite of ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()), that is, this function takes an
already loaded struct sockaddr and does a name and service name lookup
on it. It replaces the old ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(()) and ggeettsseerrvvbbyyppoorrtt(()) functions.

You have to pass in a pointer to a struct sockaddr (which in actuality is

probably a struct sockaddr_in or struct sockaddr_in6 that you've cast)
in the sa parameter, and the length of that struct in the salen.

The resultant host name and service name will be written to the area pointed to
by the host and serv parameters. Of course, you have to specify the max
lengths of these buffers in hostlen and servlen.

Finally, there are several flags you can pass, but here a a couple good ones.
NI_NOFQDN will cause the host to only contain the host name, not the whole
domain name. NI_NAMEREQD will cause the function to fail if the name cannot be
found with a DNS lookup (if you don't specify this flag and the name can't be
found, ggeettnnaammeeiinnffoo(()) will put a string version of the IP address in host
instead.)

As always, check your local man pages for the full scoop.

Return Value

Returns zero on success, or non-zero on error. If the return value is non-zero, it

can be passed to ggaaii__ssttrreerrrroorr(()) to get a human-readable string. See
ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo for more information.
Example

struct sockaddr_in6 sa; // could be IPv4 if you want

char host[1024];
char service[20];

// pretend sa is full of good information about the host and

port...

getnameinfo(&sa, sizeof sa, host, sizeof host, service,

sizeof service, 0);

printf(" host: %s\n", host); // e.g. "www.example.com"

printf("service: %s\n", service); // e.g. "http"

See Also

ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()), ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(())

9.9. getpeername()
Return address info about the remote side of the connection

Prototypes

#include <sys/socket.h>

int getpeername(int s, struct sockaddr *addr, socklen_t

*len);

Description

Once you have either aacccceepptt(())ed a remote connection, or ccoonnnneecctt(())ed to a

server, you now have what is known as a peer. Your peer is simply the computer
you're connected to, identified by an IP address and a port. So...

ggeettppeeeerrnnaammee(()) simply returns a struct sockaddr_in filled with information

about the machine you're connected to.

Why is it called a "name"? Well, there are a lot of different kinds of sockets, not
just Internet Sockets like we're using in this guide, and so "name" was a nice
generic term that covered all cases. In our case, though, the peer's "name" is it's
IP address and port.

Although the function returns the size of the resultant address in len, you must
preload len with the size of addr.

Return Value

Returns zero on success, or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.)

Example
// assume s is a connected socket

socklen_t len;
struct sockaddr_storage addr;
char ipstr[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];
int port;

len = sizeof addr;

getpeername(s, (struct sockaddr*)&addr, &len);

// deal with both IPv4 and IPv6:

if (addr.ss_family == AF_INET) {
struct sockaddr_in *s = (struct sockaddr_in *)&addr;
port = ntohs(s->sin_port);
inet_ntop(AF_INET, &s->sin_addr, ipstr, sizeof ipstr);
} else { // AF_INET6
struct sockaddr_in6 *s = (struct sockaddr_in6 *)&addr;
port = ntohs(s->sin6_port);
inet_ntop(AF_INET6, &s->sin6_addr, ipstr, sizeof ipstr);
}

printf("Peer IP address: %s\n", ipstr);

printf("Peer port : %d\n", port);

See Also

ggeetthhoossttnnaammee(()), ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()), ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(())

9.10. errno
Holds the error code for the last system call

Prototypes

#include <errno.h>

int errno;

Description

This is the variable that holds error information for a lot of system calls. If you'll
recall, things like ssoocckkeett(()) and lliisstteenn(()) return -1 on error, and they set the
exact value of errno to let you know specifically which error occurred.

The header file errno.h lists a bunch of constant symbolic names for errors,
such as EADDRINUSE, EPIPE, ECONNREFUSED, etc. Your local man pages will tell
you what codes can be returned as an error, and you can use these at run time to
handle different errors in different ways.

Or, more commonly, you can call ppeerrrroorr(()) or ssttrreerrrroorr(()) to get a human-
readable version of the error.

One thing to note, for you multithreading enthusiasts, is that on most systems
errno is defined in a threadsafe manner. (That is, it's not actually a global
variable, but it behaves just like a global variable would in a single-threaded
environment.)

Return Value

The value of the variable is the latest error to have transpired, which might be the
code for "success" if the last action succeeded.

Example

s = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);

if (s == -1) {
perror("socket"); // or use strerror()
}

tryagain:
if (select(n, &readfds, NULL, NULL) == -1) {
// an error has occurred!!

// if we were only interrupted, just restart the

select() call:
if (errno == EINTR) goto tryagain; // AAAA! goto!!!

// otherwise it's a more serious error:

perror("select");
exit(1);
}

See Also

ppeerrrroorr(()), ssttrreerrrroorr(())

9.11. fcntl()
Control socket descriptors

Prototypes

#include <sys/unistd.h>
#include <sys/fcntl.h>

int fcntl(int s, int cmd, long arg);

Description

This function is typically used to do file locking and other file-oriented stuff, but it
also has a couple socket-related functions that you might see or use from time to
time.

Parameter s is the socket descriptor you wish to operate on, cmd should be set
to F_SETFL, and arg can be one of the following commands. (Like I said, there's
more to ffccnnttll(()) than I'm letting on here, but I'm trying to stay socket-
oriented.)

O_NONBLOCK Set the socket to be non-blocking. See the section on

blocking for more details.

O_ASYNC Set the socket to do asynchronous I/O. When data is ready

to be rreeccvv(())'d on the socket, the signal SIGIO will be
raised. This is rare to see, and beyond the scope of the
guide. And I think it's only available on certain systems.

Return Value

Returns zero on success, or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.)

Different uses of the ffccnnttll(()) system call actually have different return values,
but I haven't covered them here because they're not socket-related. See your
local ffccnnttll(()) man page for more information.

Example

int s = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);

fcntl(s, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK); // set to non-blocking

fcntl(s, F_SETFL, O_ASYNC); // set to asynchronous I/O

See Also

Blocking, sseenndd(())

9.12. htons(), htonl(), ntohs(), ntohl()

Convert multi-byte integer types from host byte order to network byte order

Prototypes

#include <netinet/in.h>

uint32_t htonl(uint32_t hostlong);

uint16_t htons(uint16_t hostshort);
uint32_t ntohl(uint32_t netlong);
uint16_t ntohs(uint16_t netshort);

Description

Just to make you really unhappy, different computers use different byte orderings
internally for their multibyte integers (i.e. any integer that's larger than a char.)
The upshot of this is that if you sseenndd(()) a two-byte short int from an Intel box
to a Mac (before they became Intel boxes, too, I mean), what one computer
thinks is the number 1, the other will think is the number 256, and vice-versa.
The way to get around this problem is for everyone to put aside their differences
and agree that Motorola and IBM had it right, and Intel did it the weird way, and
so we all convert our byte orderings to "big-endian" before sending them out.
Since Intel is a "little-endian" machine, it's far more politically correct to call our
preferred byte ordering "Network Byte Order". So these functions convert from
your native byte order to network byte order and back again.

(This means on Intel these functions swap all the bytes around, and on PowerPC
they do nothing because the bytes are already in Network Byte Order. But you
should always use them in your code anyway, since someone might want to build
it on an Intel machine and still have things work properly.)

Note that the types involved are 32-bit (4 byte, probably int) and 16-bit (2 byte,
very likely short) numbers. 64-bit machines might have a hhttoonnllll(()) for 64-bit
ints, but I've not seen it. You'll just have to write your own.

Anyway, the way these functions work is that you first decide if you're converting
from host (your machine's) byte order or from network byte order. If "host", the
the first letter of the function you're going to call is "h". Otherwise it's "n" for
"network". The middle of the function name is always "to" because you're
converting from one "to" another, and the penultimate letter shows what you're
converting to. The last letter is the size of the data, "s" for short, or "l" for long.
Thus:

hhttoonnss(()) hhost ttoo nnetwork sshort

hhttoonnll(()) hhost ttoo nnetwork llong

nnttoohhss(()) nnetwork ttoo hhost sshort

nnttoohhll(()) nnetwork ttoo hhost llong

Return Value

Each function returns the converted value.

Example

uint32_t some_long = 10;

uint16_t some_short = 20;

uint32_t network_byte_order;

// convert and send

network_byte_order = htonl(some_long);
send(s, &network_byte_order, sizeof(uint32_t), 0);

some_short == ntohs(htons(some_short)); // this expression

is true

9.13. inet_ntoa(), inet_aton(), inet_addr

Convert IP addresses from a dots-and-number string to a struct in_addr and
back

Prototypes

#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>

// ALL THESE ARE DEPRECATED! Use inet_pton() or

inet_ntop() instead!!

char *inet_ntoa(struct in_addr in);

int inet_aton(const char * cp, struct in_addr * inp);
in_addr_t inet_addr(const char * cp);

Description

These functions are deprecated because they don't handle IPv6! Use
inet_ntop() or inet_pton() instead! They are included here because they
can still be found in the wild.

All of these functions convert from a struct in_addr (part of your

struct sockaddr_in, most likely) to a string in dots-and-numbers format
(e.g. "192.168.5.10") and vice-versa. If you have an IP address passed on the
command line or something, this is the easiest way to get a struct in_addr to
ccoonnnneecctt(()) to, or whatever. If you need more power, try some of the DNS
functions like ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()) or attempt a coup d'État in your local country.

The function iinneett__nnttooaa(()) converts a network address in a struct in_addr

to a dots-and-numbers format string. The "n" in "ntoa" stands for network, and
the "a" stands for ASCII for historical reasons (so it's "Network To ASCII"—the
"toa" suffix has an analogous friend in the C library called aattooii(()) which
converts an ASCII string to an integer.)

The function iinneett__aattoonn(()) is the opposite, converting from a dots-and-numbers

string into a in_addr_t (which is the type of the field s_addr in your
struct in_addr.)

Finally, the function iinneett__aaddddrr(()) is an older function that does basically the
same thing as iinneett__aattoonn(()). It's theoretically deprecated, but you'll see it a lot
and the police won't come get you if you use it.

Return Value

iinneett__aattoonn(()) returns non-zero if the address is a valid one, and it returns zero if
the address is invalid.
iinneett__nnttooaa(()) returns the dots-and-numbers string in a static buffer that is
overwritten with each call to the function.

iinneett__aaddddrr(()) returns the address as an in_addr_t, or -1 if there's an error.

(That is the same result as if you tried to convert the string "255.255.255.255",
which is a valid IP address. This is why iinneett__aattoonn(()) is better.)

Example

struct sockaddr_in antelope;

char *some_addr;

inet_aton("10.0.0.1", &antelope.sin_addr); // store IP in

antelope

some_addr = inet_ntoa(antelope.sin_addr); // return the IP

printf("%s\n", some_addr); // prints "10.0.0.1"

// and this call is the same as the inet_aton() call, above:

antelope.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("10.0.0.1");

See Also

iinneett__nnttoopp(()), iinneett__ppttoonn(()), ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()), ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(())

9.14. inet_ntop(), inet_pton()

Convert IP addresses to human-readable form and back.

Prototypes

#include <arpa/inet.h>

const char *inet_ntop(int af, const void *src,

char *dst, socklen_t size);

int inet_pton(int af, const char *src, void *dst);

Description

These functions are for dealing with human-readable IP addresses and

converting them to their binary representation for use with various functions and
system calls. The "n" stands for "network", and "p" for "presentation". Or "text
presentation". But you can think of it as "printable". "ntop" is "network to
printable". See?

Sometimes you don't want to look at a pile of binary numbers when looking at an
IP address. You want it in a nice printable form, like 192.0.2.180, or
2001:db8:8714:3a90::12. In that case, iinneett__nnttoopp(()) is for you.

iinneett__nnttoopp(()) takes the address family in the af parameter (either AF_INET or

AF_INET6). The src parameter should be a pointer to either a
struct in_addr or struct in6_addr containing the address you wish to
convert to a string. Finally dst and size are the pointer to the destination string
and the maximum length of that string.

What should the maximum length of the dst string be? What is the maximum
length for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses? Fortunately there are a couple of macros to
help you out. The maximum lengths are: INET_ADDRSTRLEN and
INET6_ADDRSTRLEN.

Other times, you might have a string containing an IP address in readable form,
and you want to pack it into a struct sockaddr_in or a
struct sockaddr_in6. In that case, the opposite funcion iinneett__ppttoonn(()) is
what you're after.

iinneett__ppttoonn(()) also takes an address family (either AF_INET or AF_INET6) in

the af parameter. The src parameter is a pointer to a string containing the IP
address in printable form. Lastly the dst parameter points to where the result
should be stored, which is probably a struct in_addr or struct in6_addr.

These functions don't do DNS lookups—you'll need ggeettaaddddiinnffoo(()) for that.

Return Value

iinneett__nnttoopp(()) returns the dst parameter on success, or NULL on failure (and

errno is set).

iinneett__ppttoonn(()) returns 1 on success. It returns -1 if there was an error (errno is

set), or 0 if the input isn't a valid IP address.

Example

// IPv4 demo of inet_ntop() and inet_pton()

struct sockaddr_in sa;

char str[INET_ADDRSTRLEN];

// store this IP address in sa:

inet_pton(AF_INET, "192.0.2.33", &(sa.sin_addr));

// now get it back and print it

inet_ntop(AF_INET, &(sa.sin_addr), str, INET_ADDRSTRLEN);

printf("%s\n", str); // prints "192.0.2.33"

// IPv6 demo of inet_ntop() and inet_pton()

// (basically the same except with a bunch of 6s thrown
around)

struct sockaddr_in6 sa;

char str[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];

// store this IP address in sa:

inet_pton(AF_INET6, "2001:db8:8714:3a90::12",
&(sa.sin6_addr));
// now get it back and print it
inet_ntop(AF_INET6, &(sa.sin6_addr), str, INET6_ADDRSTRLEN);

printf("%s\n", str); // prints "2001:db8:8714:3a90::12"

// Helper function you can use:

//Convert a struct sockaddr address to a string, IPv4 and

IPv6:

char *get_ip_str(const struct sockaddr *sa, char *s, size_t

maxlen)
{
switch(sa->sa_family) {
case AF_INET:
inet_ntop(AF_INET, &(((struct sockaddr_in
*)sa)->sin_addr),
s, maxlen);
break;

case AF_INET6:
inet_ntop(AF_INET6, &(((struct sockaddr_in6
*)sa)->sin6_addr),
s, maxlen);
break;

default:
strncpy(s, "Unknown AF", maxlen);
return NULL;
}

return s;
}

See Also

ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(())

9.15. listen()
Tell a socket to listen for incoming connections

Prototypes

#include <sys/socket.h>

int listen(int s, int backlog);

Description

You can take your socket descriptor (made with the ssoocckkeett(()) system call) and
tell it to listen for incoming connections. This is what differentiates the servers
from the clients, guys.
The backlog parameter can mean a couple different things depending on the
system you on, but loosely it is how many pending connections you can have
before the kernel starts rejecting new ones. So as the new connections come in,
you should be quick to aacccceepptt(()) them so that the backlog doesn't fill. Try
setting it to 10 or so, and if your clients start getting "Connection refused" under
heavy load, set it higher.

Before calling lliisstteenn(()), your server should call bbiinndd(()) to attach itself to a
specific port number. That port number (on the server's IP address) will be the
one that clients connect to.

Return Value

Returns zero on success, or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.)

Example

struct addrinfo hints, *res;

int sockfd;

// first, load up address structs with getaddrinfo():

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // use IPv4 or IPv6, whichever
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE; // fill in my IP for me

getaddrinfo(NULL, "3490", &hints, &res);

// make a socket:

sockfd = socket(res->ai_family, res->ai_socktype,

res->ai_protocol);

// bind it to the port we passed in to getaddrinfo():

bind(sockfd, res->ai_addr, res->ai_addrlen);

listen(sockfd, 10); // set s up to be a server (listening)

socket

// then have an accept() loop down here somewhere

See Also

aacccceepptt(()), bbiinndd(()), ssoocckkeett(())

9.16. perror(), strerror()

Print an error as a human-readable string

Prototypes

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h> // for strerror()

void perror(const char * s);

char *strerror(int errnum);

Description

Since so many functions return -1 on error and set the value of the variable
errno to be some number, it would sure be nice if you could easily print that in a
form that made sense to you.

Mercifully, ppeerrrroorr(()) does that. If you want more description to be printed

before the error, you can point the parameter s to it (or you can leave s as NULL
and nothing additional will be printed.)

In a nutshell, this function takes errno values, like ECONNRESET, and prints
them nicely, like "Connection reset by peer."

The function ssttrreerrrroorr(()) is very similar to ppeerrrroorr(()), except it returns a

pointer to the error message string for a given value (you usually pass in the
variable errno.)

Return Value

ssttrreerrrroorr(()) returns a pointer to the error message string.

Example

int s;

s = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);

if (s == -1) { // some error has occurred

// prints "socket error: " + the error message:
perror("socket error");
}

// similarly:
if (listen(s, 10) == -1) {
// this prints "an error: " + the error message from
errno:
printf("an error: %s\n", strerror(errno));
}

See Also

errno

9.17. poll()
Test for events on multiple sockets simultaneously
Prototypes

#include <sys/poll.h>

int poll(struct pollfd * ufds, unsigned int nfds, int

timeout);

Description

This function is very similar to sseelleecctt(()) in that they both watch sets of file
descriptors for events, such as incoming data ready to rreeccvv(()), socket ready to
sseenndd(()) data to, out-of-band data ready to rreeccvv(()), errors, etc.

The basic idea is that you pass an array of nfds struct pollfds in ufds,
along with a timeout in milliseconds (1000 milliseconds in a second.) The
timeout can be negative if you want to wait forever. If no event happens on any
of the socket descriptors by the timeout, ppoollll(()) will return.

Each element in the array of struct pollfds represents one socket descriptor,
and contains the following fields:

struct pollfd {
int fd; // the socket descriptor
short events; // bitmap of events we're interested in
short revents; // when poll() returns, bitmap of events
that occurred
};

Before calling ppoollll(()), load fd with the socket descriptor (if you set fd to a
negative number, this struct pollfd is ignored and its revents field is set to
zero) and then construct the events field by bitwise-ORing the following macros:

POLLIN Alert me when data is ready to rreeccvv(()) on this socket.

POLLOUT Alert me when I can sseenndd(()) data to this socket without

blocking.

POLLPRI Alert me when out-of-band data is ready to rreeccvv(()) on

this socket.

Once the ppoollll(()) call returns, the revents field will be constructed as a
bitwise-OR of the above fields, telling you which descriptors actually have had
that event occur. Additionally, these other fields might be present:

POLLERR An error has occurred on this socket.

 POLLHUP The remote side of the connection hung up.

POLLNVAL Something was wrong with the socket descriptor

fd—maybe it's uninitialized?

Return Value

Returns the number of elements in the ufds array that have had event occur on
them; this can be zero if the timeout occurred. Also returns -1 on error (and
eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.)

Example

int s1, s2;

int rv;
char buf1[256], buf2[256];
struct pollfd ufds[2];

s1 = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);

s2 = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);

// pretend we've connected both to a server at this point

//connect(s1, ...)...
//connect(s2, ...)...

// set up the array of file descriptors.

//
// in this example, we want to know when there's normal or
out-of-band
// data ready to be recv()'d...

ufds[0].fd = s1;
ufds[0].events = POLLIN | POLLPRI; // check for normal or
out-of-band

ufds[1] = s2;
ufds[1].events = POLLIN; // check for just normal data

// wait for events on the sockets, 3.5 second timeout

rv = poll(ufds, 2, 3500);

if (rv == -1) {
perror("poll"); // error occurred in poll()
} else if (rv == 0) {
printf("Timeout occurred! No data after 3.5
seconds.\n");
} else {
// check for events on s1:
if (ufds[0].revents & POLLIN) {
recv(s1, buf1, sizeof buf1, 0); // receive normal
data
}
if (ufds[0].revents & POLLPRI) {
recv(s1, buf1, sizeof buf1, MSG_OOB); // out-of-band
data
}

// check for events on s2:

if (ufds[1].revents & POLLIN) {
recv(s1, buf2, sizeof buf2, 0);
}
}

See Also

sseelleecctt(())

9.18. recv(), recvfrom()

Receive data on a socket

Prototypes

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

ssize_t recv(int s, void * buf, size_t len, int flags);

ssize_t recvfrom(int s, void *buf, size_t len, int flags,
struct sockaddr * from, socklen_t *fromlen);

Description

Once you have a socket up and connected, you can read incoming data from the
remote side using the rreeccvv(()) (for TCP SOCK_STREAM sockets) and
rreeccvvffrroomm(()) (for UDP SOCK_DGRAM sockets).

Both functions take the socket descriptor s, a pointer to the buffer buf, the size
(in bytes) of the buffer len, and a set of flags that control how the functions
work.

Additionally, the rreeccvvffrroomm(()) takes a struct sockaddr*, from that will tell
you where the data came from, and will fill in fromlen with the size of
struct sockaddr. (You must also initialize fromlen to be the size of from or
struct sockaddr.)

So what wondrous flags can you pass into this function? Here are some of them,
but you should check your local man pages for more information and what is
actually supported on your system. You bitwise-or these together, or just set
flags to 0 if you want it to be a regular vanilla rreeccvv(()).

MSG_OOB Receive Out of Band data. This is how to get data

that has been sent to you with the MSG_OOB flag in
sseenndd(()). As the receiving side, you will have had
signal SIGURG raised telling you there is urgent data.
In your handler for that signal, you could call
 rreeccvv(()) with this MSG_OOB flag.

MSG_PEEK If you want to call rreeccvv(()) "just for pretend", you

can call it with this flag. This will tell you what's
waiting in the buffer for when you call rreeccvv(()) "for
real" (i.e. without the MSG_PEEK flag. It's like a sneak
preview into the next rreeccvv(()) call.

MSG_WAITALL Tell rreeccvv(()) to not return until all the data you
specified in the len parameter. It will ignore your
wishes in extreme circumstances, however, like if a
signal interrupts the call or if some error occurs or if
the remote side closes the connection, etc. Don't be
mad with it.

When you call rreeccvv(()), it will block until there is some data to read. If you want
to not block, set the socket to non-blocking or check with sseelleecctt(()) or ppoollll(())
to see if there is incoming data before calling rreeccvv(()) or rreeccvvffrroomm(()).

Return Value

Returns the number of bytes actually received (which might be less than you
requested in the len parameter), or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set
accordingly.)

If the remote side has closed the connection, rreeccvv(()) will return 0. This is the
normal method for determining if the remote side has closed the connection.
Normality is good, rebel!

Example

// stream sockets and recv()

struct addrinfo hints, *res;

int sockfd;
char buf[512];
int byte_count;

// get host info, make socket, and connect it

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);
hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // use IPv4 or IPv6, whichever
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM;
getaddrinfo("www.example.com", "3490", &hints, &res);
sockfd = socket(res->ai_family, res->ai_socktype,
res->ai_protocol);
connect(sockfd, res->ai_addr, res->ai_addrlen);

// all right! now that we're connected, we can receive some

data!
byte_count = recv(sockfd, buf, sizeof buf, 0);
printf("recv()'d %d bytes of data in buf\n", byte_count);
// datagram sockets and recvfrom()

struct addrinfo hints, *res;

int sockfd;
int byte_count;
socklen_t fromlen;
struct sockaddr_storage addr;
char buf[512];
char ipstr[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];

// get host info, make socket, bind it to port 4950

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);
hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // use IPv4 or IPv6, whichever
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_DGRAM;
hints.ai_flags = AI_PASSIVE;
getaddrinfo(NULL, "4950", &hints, &res);
sockfd = socket(res->ai_family, res->ai_socktype,
res->ai_protocol);
bind(sockfd, res->ai_addr, res->ai_addrlen);

// no need to accept(), just recvfrom():

fromlen = sizeof addr;

byte_count = recvfrom(sockfd, buf, sizeof buf, 0, &addr,
&fromlen);

printf("recv()'d %d bytes of data in buf\n", byte_count);

printf("from IP address %s\n",
inet_ntop(addr.ss_family,
addr.ss_family == AF_INET?
((struct sockadd_in *)&addr)->sin_addr:
((struct sockadd_in6 *)&addr)->sin6_addr,
ipstr, sizeof ipstr);

See Also

sseenndd(()), sseennddttoo(()), sseelleecctt(()), ppoollll(()), Blocking

9.19. select()
Check if sockets descriptors are ready to read/write

Prototypes

#include <sys/select.h>

int select(int n, fd_set *readfds, fd_set *writefds, fd_set

*exceptfds,
struct timeval * timeout);

FD_SET(int fd, fd_set *set);

FD_CLR(int fd, fd_set *set);
FD_ISSET(int fd, fd_set *set);
FD_ZERO(fd_set * set);
Description

The sseelleecctt(()) function gives you a way to simultaneously check multiple

sockets to see if they have data waiting to be rreeccvv(())d, or if you can sseenndd(())
data to them without blocking, or if some exception has occurred.

You populate your sets of socket descriptors using the macros, like FFDD__SSEETT(()),
above. Once you have the set, you pass it into the function as one of the following
parameters: readfds if you want to know when any of the sockets in the set is
ready to rreeccvv(()) data, writefds if any of the sockets is ready to sseenndd(()) data
to, and/or exceptfds if you need to know when an exception (error) occurs on
any of the sockets. Any or all of these parameters can be NULL if you're not
interested in those types of events. After sseelleecctt(()) returns, the values in the
sets will be changed to show which are ready for reading or writing, and which
have exceptions.

The first parameter, n is the highest-numbered socket descriptor (they're just

ints, remember?) plus one.

Lastly, the struct timeval, timeout, at the end—this lets you tell sseelleecctt(())
how long to check these sets for. It'll return after the timeout, or when an event
occurs, whichever is first. The struct timeval has two fields: tv_sec is the
number of seconds, to which is added tv_usec, the number of microseconds
(1,000,000 microseconds in a second.)

The helper macros do the following:

FFDD__SSEETT((iinntt ffdd,, ffdd__sseett **sseett));; Add fd to the set.

FFDD__CCLLRR((iinntt ffdd,, ffdd__sseett **sseett));; Remove fd from the set.

FFDD__IISSSSEETT((iinntt ffdd,, ffdd__sseett Return true if fd is in the set.

**sseett));;

FFDD__ZZEERROO((ffdd__sseett **sseett));; Clear all entries from the set.

Return Value

Returns the number of descriptors in the set on success, 0 if the timeout was
reached, or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.) Also, the sets are
modified to show which sockets are ready.

Example

int s1, s2, n;

fd_set readfds;
struct timeval tv;
char buf1[256], buf2[256];

// pretend we've connected both to a server at this point

//s1 = socket(...);
//s2 = socket(...);
//connect(s1, ...)...
//connect(s2, ...)...

// clear the set ahead of time

FD_ZERO(&readfds);

// add our descriptors to the set

FD_SET(s1, &readfds);
FD_SET(s2, &readfds);

// since we got s2 second, it's the "greater", so we use

that for
// the n param in select()
n = s2 + 1;

// wait until either socket has data ready to be recv()d

(timeout 10.5 secs)
tv.tv_sec = 10;
tv.tv_usec = 500000;
rv = select(n, &readfds, NULL, NULL, &tv);

if (rv == -1) {
perror("select"); // error occurred in select()
} else if (rv == 0) {
printf("Timeout occurred! No data after 10.5
seconds.\n");
} else {
// one or both of the descriptors have data
if (FD_ISSET(s1, &readfds)) {
recv(s1, buf1, sizeof buf1, 0);
}
if (FD_ISSET(s2, &readfds)) {
recv(s1, buf2, sizeof buf2, 0);
}
}

See Also

ppoollll(())

9.20. setsockopt(), getsockopt()

Set various options for a socket

Prototypes

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int getsockopt(int s, int level, int optname, void *optval,

 socklen_t * optlen);
int setsockopt(int s, int level, int optname, const void
*optval,
socklen_t optlen);

Description

Sockets are fairly configurable beasts. In fact, they are so configurable, I'm not
even going to cover it all here. It's probably system-dependent anyway. But I will
talk about the basics.

Obviously, these functions get and set certain options on a socket. On a Linux
box, all the socket information is in the man page for socket in section 7. (Type:
"man 7 socket" to get all these goodies.)

As for parameters, s is the socket you're talking about, level should be set to
SOL_SOCKET. Then you set the optname to the name you're interested in. Again,
see your man page for all the options, but here are some of the most fun ones:

SO_BINDTODEVICE Bind this socket to a symbolic device name like eth0

instead of using bbiinndd(()) to bind it to an IP address.
Type the command ifconfig under Unix to see the
device names.

SO_REUSEADDR Allows other sockets to bbiinndd(()) to this port, unless

there is an active listening socket bound to the port
already. This enables you to get around those
"Address already in use" error messages when you
try to restart your server after a crash.

SO_BROADCAST Allows UDP datagram (SOCK_DGRAM) sockets to send

and receive packets sent to and from the broadcast
address. Does nothing—NOTHING!!—to TCP stream
sockets! Hahaha!

As for the parameter optval, it's usually a pointer to an int indicating the value
in question. For booleans, zero is false, and non-zero is true. And that's an
absolute fact, unless it's different on your system. If there is no parameter to be
passed, optval can be NULL.

The final parameter, optlen, is filled out for you by ggeettssoocckkoopptt(()) and you
have to specify it for sseettssoocckkoopptt(()), where it will probably be sizeof(int).

Warning: on some systems (notably Sun and Windows), the option can be a
char instead of an int, and is set to, for example, a character value of '1'
instead of an int value of 1. Again, check your own man pages for more info with
"man setsockopt" and "man 7 socket"!
Return Value

Returns zero on success, or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.)

Example

int optval;
int optlen;
char *optval2;

// set SO_REUSEADDR on a socket to true (1):

optval = 1;
setsockopt(s1, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, &optval, sizeof
optval);

// bind a socket to a device name (might not work on all

systems):
optval2 = "eth1"; // 4 bytes long, so 4, below:
setsockopt(s2, SOL_SOCKET, SO_BINDTODEVICE, optval2, 4);

// see if the SO_BROADCAST flag is set:

getsockopt(s3, SOL_SOCKET, SO_BROADCAST, &optval, &optlen);
if (optval != 0) {
print("SO_BROADCAST enabled on s3!\n");
}

See Also

ffccnnttll(())

9.21. send(), sendto()

Send data out over a socket

Prototypes

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

ssize_t send(int s, const void *buf, size_t len, int flags);

ssize_t sendto(int s, const void *buf, size_t len,
int flags, const struct sockaddr *to,
socklen_t tolen);

Description

These functions send data to a socket. Generally speaking, sseenndd(()) is used for
TCP SOCK_STREAM connected sockets, and sseennddttoo(()) is used for UDP
SOCK_DGRAM unconnected datagram sockets. With the unconnected sockets, you
must specify the destination of a packet each time you send one, and that's why
the last parameters of sseennddttoo(()) define where the packet is going.

With both sseenndd(()) and sseennddttoo(()), the parameter s is the socket, buf is a pointer
to the data you want to send, len is the number of bytes you want to send, and
flags allows you to specify more information about how the data is to be sent.
Set flags to zero if you want it to be "normal" data. Here are some of the
commonly used flags, but check your local sseenndd(()) man pages for more details:

MSG_OOB Send as "out of band" data. TCP supports this, and

it's a way to tell the receiving system that this data
has a higher priority than the normal data. The
receiver will receive the signal SIGURG and it can
then receive this data without first receiving all the
rest of the normal data in the queue.

MSG_DONTROUTE Don't send this data over a router, just keep it local.

MSG_DONTWAIT If sseenndd(()) would block because outbound traffic is

clogged, have it return EAGAIN. This is like a "enable
non-blocking just for this send." See the section on
blocking for more details.

MSG_NOSIGNAL If you sseenndd(()) to a remote host which is no longer

rreeccvv(())ing, you'll typically get the signal SIGPIPE.
Adding this flag prevents that signal from being
raised.

Return Value

Returns the number of bytes actually sent, or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set
accordingly.) Note that the number of bytes actually sent might be less than the
number you asked it to send! See the section on handling partial sseenndd(())s for a
helper function to get around this.

Also, if the socket has been closed by either side, the process calling sseenndd(()) will
get the signal SIGPIPE. (Unless sseenndd(()) was called with the MSG_NOSIGNAL
flag.)

Example

int spatula_count = 3490;

char *secret_message = "The Cheese is in The Toaster";

int stream_socket, dgram_socket;

struct sockaddr_in dest;
int temp;

// first with TCP stream sockets:

// assume sockets are made and connected

//stream_socket = socket(...
//connect(stream_socket, ...

// convert to network byte order

temp = htonl(spatula_count);
// send data normally:
send(stream_socket, &temp, sizeof temp, 0);

// send secret message out of band:

send(stream_socket, secret_message,
strlen(secret_message)+1, MSG_OOB);

// now with UDP datagram sockets:

//getaddrinfo(...
//dest = ... // assume "dest" holds the address of the
destination
//dgram_socket = socket(...

// send secret message normally:

sendto(dgram_socket, secret_message,
strlen(secret_message)+1, 0,
(struct sockaddr*)&dest, sizeof dest);

See Also

rreeccvv(()), rreeccvvffrroomm(())

9.22. shutdown()
Stop further sends and receives on a socket

Prototypes

#include <sys/socket.h>

int shutdown(int s, int how);

Description

That's it! I've had it! No more sseenndd(())s are allowed on this socket, but I still want
to rreeccvv(()) data on it! Or vice-versa! How can I do this?

When you cclloossee(()) a socket descriptor, it closes both sides of the socket for
reading and writing, and frees the socket descriptor. If you just want to close one
side or the other, you can use this sshhuuttddoowwnn(()) call.

As for parameters, s is obviously the socket you want to perform this action on,
and what action that is can be specified with the how parameter. How can be
SHUT_RD to prevent further rreeccvv(())s, SHUT_WR to prohibit further sseenndd(())s, or
SHUT_RDWR to do both.

Note that sshhuuttddoowwnn(()) doesn't free up the socket descriptor, so you still have to
eventually cclloossee(()) the socket even if it has been fully shut down.
This is a rarely used system call.

Return Value

Returns zero on success, or -1 on error (and eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.)

Example

int s = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);

// ...do some send()s and stuff in here...

// and now that we're done, don't allow any more sends()s:
shutdown(s, SHUT_WR);

See Also

cclloossee(())

9.23. socket()
Allocate a socket descriptor

Prototypes

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

int socket(int domain, int type, int protocol);

Description

Returns a new socket descriptor that you can use to do sockety things with. This
is generally the first call in the whopping process of writing a socket program,
and you can use the result for subsequent calls to lliisstteenn(()), bind(),
accept(), or a variety of other functions.

In usual usage, you get the values for these parameters from a call to
ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()), as shown in the example below. But you can fill them in by
hand if you really want to.

domain domain describes what kind of socket you're interested in.

This can, believe me, be a wide variety of things, but since
this is a socket guide, it's going to be PF_INET for IPv4, and
PF_INET6 for IPv6.

type Also, the type parameter can be a number of things, but

you'll probably be setting it to either SOCK_STREAM for
reliable TCP sockets (sseenndd(()), rreeccvv(())) or SOCK_DGRAM for
 unreliable fast UDP sockets (sseennddttoo(()), rreeccvvffrroomm(()).)

(Another interesting socket type is SOCK_RAW which can be

used to construct packets by hand. It's pretty cool.)

protocol Finally, the protocol parameter tells which protocol to use

with a certain socket type. Like I've already said, for instance,
SOCK_STREAM uses TCP. Fortunately for you, when using
SOCK_STREAM or SOCK_DGRAM, you can just set the protocol
to 0, and it'll use the proper protocol automatically.
Otherwise, you can use ggeettpprroottoobbyynnaammee(()) to look up the
proper protocol number.

Return Value

The new socket descriptor to be used in subsequent calls, or -1 on error (and

eerrrrnnoo will be set accordingly.)

Example

struct addrinfo hints, *res;

int sockfd;

// first, load up address structs with getaddrinfo():

memset(&hints, 0, sizeof hints);

hints.ai_family = AF_UNSPEC; // AF_INET, AF_INET6, or
AF_UNSPEC
hints.ai_socktype = SOCK_STREAM; // SOCK_STREAM or SOCK_DGRAM

getaddrinfo("www.example.com", "3490", &hints, &res);

// make a socket using the information gleaned from

getaddrinfo():
sockfd = socket(res->ai_family, res->ai_socktype,
res->ai_protocol);

See Also

aacccceepptt(()), bbiinndd(()), ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()), lliisstte

enn(())

9.24. struct sockaddr and pals

Structures for handling internet addresses

Prototypes

include <netinet/in.h>

// All pointers to socket address structures are often cast

to pointers
// to this type before use in various functions and system
calls:

struct sockaddr {
unsigned short sa_family; // address family, AF_xxx
char sa_data[14]; // 14 bytes of protocol
address
};

// IPv4 AF_INET sockets:

struct sockaddr_in {
short sin_family; // e.g. AF_INET, AF_INET6
unsigned short sin_port; // e.g. htons(3490)
struct in_addr sin_addr; // see struct in_addr,
below
char sin_zero[8]; // zero this if you want
to
};

struct in_addr {
unsigned long s_addr; // load with inet_pton()
};

// IPv6 AF_INET6 sockets:

struct sockaddr_in6 {
u_int16_t sin6_family; // address family,
AF_INET6
u_int16_t sin6_port; // port number, Network
Byte Order
u_int32_t sin6_flowinfo; // IPv6 flow information
struct in6_addr sin6_addr; // IPv6 address
u_int32_t sin6_scope_id; // Scope ID
};

struct in6_addr {
unsigned char s6_addr[16]; // load with inet_pton()
};

// General socket address holding structure, big enough to

hold either
// struct sockaddr_in or struct sockaddr_in6 data:

struct sockaddr_storage {
sa_family_t ss_family; // address family

// all this is padding, implementation specific, ignore

it:
char __ss_pad1[_SS_PAD1SIZE];
int64_t __ss_align;
char __ss_pad2[_SS_PAD2SIZE];
};

Description
These are the basic structures for all syscalls and functions that deal with
internet addresses. Often you'll use ggeettaaddddiinnffoo(()) to fill these structures out,
and then will read them when you have to.

In memory, the struct sockaddr_in and struct sockaddr_in6 share the

same beginning structure as struct sockaddr, and you can freely cast the
pointer of one type to the other without any harm, except the possible end of the
universe.

Just kidding on that end-of-the-universe thing...if the universe does end when
you cast a struct sockaddr_in* to a struct sockaddr*, I promise you it's
pure coincidence and you shouldn't even worry about it.

So, with that in mind, remember that whenever a function says it takes a
struct sockaddr* you can cast your struct sockaddr_in*,
struct sockaddr_in6*, or struct sockadd_storage* to that type with
ease and safety.

struct sockaddr_in is the structure used with IPv4 addresses (e.g.

"192.0.2.10"). It holds an address family (AF_INET), a port in sin_port, and
an IPv4 address in sin_addr.

There's also this sin_zero field in struct sockaddr_in which some people
claim must be set to zero. Other people don't claim anything about it (the Linux
documentation doesn't even mention it at all), and setting it to zero doesn't seem
to be actually necessary. So, if you feel like it, set it to zero using mmeemmsseett(()).

Now, that struct in_addr is a weird beast on different systems. Sometimes

it's a crazy union with all kinds of #defines and other nonsense. But what you
should do is only use the s_addr field in this structure, because many systems
only implement that one.

struct sockadd_in6 and struct in6_addr are very similar, except they're
used for IPv6.

struct sockaddr_storage is a struct you can pass to aacccceepptt(()) or

rreeccvvffrroomm(()) when you're trying to write IP version-agnostic code and you don't
know if the new address is going to be IPv4 or IPv6. The
struct sockaddr_storage structure is large enough to hold both types,
unlike the original small struct sockaddr.

Example

// IPv4:

struct sockaddr_in ip4addr;

int s;

ip4addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
ip4addr.sin_port = htons(3490);
inet_pton(AF_INET, "10.0.0.1", &ip4addr.sin_addr);
s = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
bind(s, (struct sockaddr*)&ip4addr, sizeof ip4addr);

// IPv6:

struct sockaddr_in6 ip6addr;

int s;

ip6addr.sin6_family = AF_INET6;
ip6addr.sin6_port = htons(4950);
inet_pton(AF_INET6, "2001:db8:8714:3a90::12",
&ip6addr.sin6_addr);

s = socket(PF_INET6, SOCK_STREAM, 0);

bind(s, (struct sockaddr*)&ip6addr, sizeof ip6addr);

See Also

aacccceepptt(()), bbiinndd(()), ccoonnnneecctt(()), iinneett__aattoonn(()), iinneett__nnttooaa(())

10. More References

You've come this far, and now you're screaming for more! Where else can you go
to learn more about all this stuff?

10.1. Books

For old-school actual hold-it-in-your-hand pulp paper books, try some of the
following excellent books. I used to be an affiliate with a very popular internet
bookseller, but their new customer tracking system is incompatible with a print
document. As such, I get no more kickbacks. If you feel compassion for my
plight, paypal a donation to beej@beej.us. :-)

Unix Network Programming, volumes 1-2 by W. Richard Stevens. Published by

Prentice Hall. ISBNs for volumes 1-2: 0131411551, 0130810819.

Internetworking with TCP/IP, volumes I-III by Douglas E. Comer and David L.

Stevens. Published by Prentice Hall. ISBNs for volumes I, II, and III:
0131876716, 0130319961, 0130320714.

TCP/IP Illustrated, volumes 1-3 by W. Richard Stevens and Gary R. Wright.

Published by Addison Wesley. ISBNs for volumes 1, 2, and 3 (and a 3-volume
set): 0201633469, 020163354X, 0201634953, (0201776316).

TCP/IP Network Administration by Craig Hunt. Published by O'Reilly & Associates,

Inc. ISBN 0596002971.

Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment by W. Richard Stevens.

Published by Addison Wesley. ISBN 0201433079.

10.2. Web References

On the web:

BSD Sockets: A Quick And Dirty Primer (Unix system programming info, too!)

The Unix Socket FAQ

Intro to TCP/IP

TCP/IP FAQ

The Winsock FAQ

And here are some relevant Wikipedia pages:

Berkeley Sockets

Internet Protocol (IP)

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

Client-Server

Serialization (packing and unpacking data)

10.3. RFCs

RFCs—the real dirt! These are documents that describe assigned numbers,
programming APIs, and protocols that are used on the Internet. I've included
links to a few of them here for your enjoyment, so grab a bucket of popcorn and
put on your thinking cap:

RFC 1—The First RFC; this gives you an idea of what the "Internet" was like just
as it was coming to life, and an insight into how it was being designed from the
ground up. (This RFC is completely obsolete, obviously!)

RFC 768—The User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

RFC 791—The Internet Protocol (IP)

RFC 793—The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

RFC 854—The Telnet Protocol

RFC 959—File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

RFC 1350—The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)

RFC 1459—Internet Relay Chat Protocol (IRC)

RFC 1918—Address Allocation for Private Internets

RFC 2131—Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

RFC 2616—Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

RFC 2821—Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

RFC 3330—Special-Use IPv4 Addresses

RFC 3493—Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6

RFC 3542—Advanced Sockets Application Program Interface (API) for IPv6

RFC 3849—IPv6 Address Prefix Reserved for Documentation

RFC 3920—Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)

RFC 3977—Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)

RFC 4193—Unique Local IPv6 Unicast Addresses

RFC 4506—External Data Representation Standard (XDR)

The IETF has a nice online tool for searching and browsing RFCs.

Index

10.x.x.x: 3.4.1
192.168.x.x: 3.4.1
255.255.255.255: 7.6, 9.13

aacccceepptt(()): 5.5, 5.6, 9.1

Address already in use: 5.3, 8.0
AF_INET: 3.3, 5.2, 8.0
AF_INET6: 3.3
asynchronous I/O: 9.11

Bapper: 7.6
bbiinndd(()): 5.3, 8.0, 9.2
implicit: 5.3, 5.4
blah blah blah: 2.2
blocking: 7.1
books: 10.1
broadcast: 7.6
byte ordering: 3.2, 3.3, 7.4, 9.12

client:
datagram: 6.3
stream: 6.2
client/server: 6.0
cclloossee(()): 5.9, 9.4
cclloosseessoocckkeett(()): 1.5, 5.9, 9.4
compilers:
gcc: 1.2
compression: 8.0
ccoonnnneecctt(()): 2.1, 5.3, 5.3, 5.4, 9.3
on datagram sockets: 5.8, 6.3, 9.3
Connection refused: 6.2
CCrreeaatteePPrroocceessss(()): 1.5, 8.0
CCrreeaatteeTThhrreeaadd(()): 1.5
CSocket: 1.5
Cygwin: 1.5

data encapsulation: 2.2, 7.3

DHCP: 10.3
disconnected network: see private network.
DNS:
domain name service: see DNS.
donkeys: 7.3

EAGAIN: 9.21
email to Beej: 1.6
encryption: 8.0
EPIPE: 9.4
errno: 9.10, 9.16
Ethernet: 2.2
EWOULDBLOCK: 7.1, 9.1
Excalibur: 7.5
external data representation standard: see XDR.

F_SETFL: 9.11
ffccnnttll(()): 7.1, 9.1, 9.11
FFDD__CCLLRR(()): 7.2, 9.19
FFDD__IISSSSEETT(()): 7.2, 9.19
FFDD__SSEETT(()): 7.2, 9.19
FFDD__ZZEERROO(()): 7.2, 9.19
file descriptor: 2.0
firewall: 3.4.1, 7.6, 8.0
poking holes in: 8.0
footer: 2.2
ffoorrkk(()): 1.5, 6.0, 8.0
FTP: 10.3

ggeettaaddddrriinnffoo(()): 3.3, 4.0, 5.1

ggeetthhoossttbbyyaaddddrr(()): 5.10, 9.7
ggeetthhoossttbbyynnaammee(()): 5.11, 9.6, 9.7
ggeetthhoossttnnaammee(()): 5.11, 9.6
ggeettnnaammeeiinnffoo(()): 4.0, 5.10
ggeettppeeeerrnnaammee(()): 5.10, 9.9
ggeettpprroottoobbyynnaammee(()): 9.23
ggeettssoocckkoopptt(()): 9.20
ggeettttiimmeeooffddaayy(()): 7.2
goat: 8.0
goto: 8.0

header: 2.2
header files: 8.0
hheerrrroorr(()): 9.7
hhssttrreerrrroorr(()): 9.7
hhttoonnll(()): 3.2, 9.12, 9.12
hhttoonnss(()): 3.2, 3.3, 7.4, 9.12, 9.12
HTTP: 10.3
HTTP protocol: 2.1

ICMP: 8.0
IEEE-754: 7.4
INADDR_ANY:
INADDR_BROADCAST: 7.6
iinneett__aaddddrr(()): 3.4, 9.13
iinneett__aattoonn(()): 3.4, 9.13
iinneett__nnttooaa(()): 3.4, 9.13
iinneett__nnttooaa(()): 3.4, 5.10
iinneett__ppttoonn(()): 3.4
Internet Control Message Protocol: see ICMP.
Internet protocol: see IP.
Internet Relay Chat: see IRC.
ioctl(): 8.0
IP: 2.1, 2.2, 3.0, 3.4, 5.3, 5.8, 5.11, 10.3
IP address: 9.2, 9.6, 9.7, 9.9
IPv4: 3.1
IPv6: 3.1, 3.3, 3.4.1, 4.0
IRC: 7.4, 10.3
ISO/OSI: 2.2

layered network model: see ISO/OSI.

Linux: 1.5
lliisstteenn(()): 5.3, 5.5, 9.15
backlog: 5.5
with select(): 7.2
lo: see loopback device.
localhost: 8.0
loopback device: 8.0

man pages: 9.0

Maximum Transmission Unit: see MTU.
mirroring: 1.7
MSG_DONTROUTE: 9.21
MSG_DONTWAIT: 9.21
MSG_NOSIGNAL: 9.21
MSG_OOB: 9.18, 9.21
MSG_PEEK: 9.18
MSG_WAITALL: 9.18
MTU: 8.0

NAT: 3.4.1
netstat: 8.0, 8.0
network address translation: see NAT.
NNTP: 10.3
non-blocking sockets: 7.1, 9.1, 9.11, 9.21
nnttoohhll(()): 3.2, 9.12, 9.12
nnttoohhss(()): 3.2, 9.12, 9.12

O_ASYNC: see asynchronous I/O.

O_NONBLOCK: see non-blocking sockets.
OpenSSL: 8.0
out-of-band data: 9.18, 9.21

packet sniffer: 8.0

Pat: 7.6
ppeerrrroorr(()): 9.10, 9.16
PF_INET: 8.0, 9.23
ping: 8.0
ppoollll(()): 7.2, 9.17
port: 5.8, 9.2, 9.9
ports: 5.3, 5.3
private network: 3.4.1
promiscuous mode: 8.0

raw sockets: 2.1, 8.0

rreeaadd(()): 2.0
rreeccvv(()): 2.0, 2.0, 5.7, 9.18
timeout: 8.0
rreeccvvffrroomm(()): 5.8, 9.18
rreeccvvttiimmeeoouutt(()): 8.0
references: 10.1
web-based: 10.2
RFCs: 10.3
route: 8.0

SA_RESTART: 8.0
Secure Sockets Layer: see SSL.
security: 8.0
sseelleecctt(()): 1.5, 7.1, 7.2, 8.0, 8.0, 9.19
with listen(): 7.2
sseenndd(()): 2.0, 2.0, 2.2, 5.7, 9.21
sseennddaallll(()): 7.3, 7.5
sseennddttoo(()): 2.2, 9.21
serialization: 7.4
server:
datagram: 6.3
stream: 6.1
sseettssoocckkoopptt(()): 5.3, 7.6, 8.0, 8.0, 9.20
sshhuuttddoowwnn(()): 5.9, 9.22
ssiiggaaccttiioonn(()): 6.1, 8.0
SIGIO: 9.11
SIGPIPE: 9.4, 9.21
SIGURG: 9.18, 9.21
SMTP: 10.3
SO_BINDTODEVICE: 9.20
SO_BROADCAST: 7.6, 9.20
SO_RCVTIMEO: 8.0
SO_REUSEADDR: 5.3, 8.0, 9.20
SO_SNDTIMEO: 8.0
SOCK_DGRAM: see socket;datagram.
SOCK_RAW: 9.23
SOCK_STREAM: see socket;stream.
socket: 2.0
datagram: 2.1, 2.1, 2.2, 5.8, 9.18, 9.20, 9.21, 9.23
raw: 2.1
stream: 2.1, 2.1, 9.1, 9.18, 9.21, 9.23
types: 2.0, 2.1
socket descriptor: 2.0, 3.3
ssoocckkeett(()): 2.0, 5.2, 9.23
SOL_SOCKET: 9.20
Solaris: 1.4, 9.20
SSL: 8.0
ssttrreerrrroorr(()): 9.10, 9.16
struct addrinfo: 3.3
struct hostent: 9.7
struct in_addr: 9.24
struct pollfd: 9.17
struct sockaddr: 3.3, 5.8, 9.18, 9.24
struct sockaddr_in: 3.3, 9.1, 9.24
struct timeval: 7.2, 9.19
SunOS: 1.4, 9.20

TCP: 2.1, 9.23, 10.3

gcc: 2.1, 10.3
TFTP: 2.2, 10.3
timeout, setting: 8.0
translations: 1.8
transmission control protocol: see TCP.
TRON: 5.4

UDP: 2.1, 2.2, 7.6, 9.23, 10.3

user datagram protocol: see UDP.

Vint Cerf: 3.1

Windows: 1.5, 5.9, 8.0, 9.4, 9.20

Winsock: 1.5, 5.9
Winsock FAQ: 1.5
wwrriittee(()): 2.0
WWSSAACClleeaannuupp(()): 1.5
WWSSAASSttaarrttuupp(()): 1.5

XDR: 7.4, 10.3

XMPP: 10.3

zombie process: 6.1