NAME

ipx_addr, ipx_ntoa — IPX address conversion routines

LIBRARY

IPX Address Conversion Support Library (libipx, -lipx)

SYNOPSIS

#include < sys/types.h>
#include < netipx/ipx.h>

struct ipx_addr
ipx_addr( const char *cp);

char *
ipx_ntoa( struct ipx_addr ipx);

DESCRIPTION

The routine ipx_addr() interprets character strings representing IPX addresses, returning binary information suitable for use in system calls. The routine ipx_ntoa() takes IPX addresses and returns ASCII strings representing the address in a notation in common use:

Trailing zero fields are suppressed, and each number is printed in hexadecimal, in a format suitable for input to ipx_addr(). Any fields lacking super-decimal digits will have a trailing ‘ H’ appended.

An effort has been made to ensure that ipx_addr() be compatible with most formats in common use. It will first separate an address into 1 to 3 fields using a single delimiter chosen from period ‘ .’, colon ‘ :’ or pound-sign ‘ #’. Each field is then examined for byte separators (colon or period). If there are byte separators, each subfield separated is taken to be a small hexadecimal number, and the entirety is taken as a network-byte-ordered quantity to be zero extended in the high-network-order bytes. Next, the field is inspected for hyphens, in which case the field is assumed to be a number in decimal notation with hyphens separating the millennia. Next, the field is assumed to be a number: It is interpreted as hexadecimal if there is a leading ‘ 0x’ (as in C), a trailing ‘ H’ (as in Mesa), or there are any super-decimal digits present. It is interpreted as octal if there is a leading ‘ 0’ and there are no super-octal digits. Otherwise, it is converted as a decimal number.

RETURN VALUES

None. (See BUGS.)

SEE ALSO

hosts(5), networks(5)

HISTORY

The precursor ns_addr() and ns_toa() functions appeared in 4.3BSD.

BUGS

The string returned by ipx_ntoa() resides in a static memory area. The function ipx_addr() should diagnose improperly formed input, and there should be an unambiguous way to recognize this.