GETHOSTBYNAME (3) | C library functions | Unix Manual Pages

GETHOSTBYNAME (3) | C library functions | Unix Manual Pages | :man▋

The gethostbyname, gethostbyname2 and gethostbyaddr functions each return a pointer to an object with the following structure describing an internet host referenced by name or by address, respectively.

The name argument passed to gethostbyname or gethostbyname2 should point to a NUL -terminated hostname. The addr argument passed to gethostbyaddr should point to an address which is len bytes long, in binary form (i.e., not an IP address in human readable ASCII form). The type argument specifies the address family (e.g. AF_INET, AF_INET6, etc.) of this address.

The structure returned contains either the information obtained from the name server, named(8), broken-out fields from a line in /etc/hosts, or database entries supplied by the yp(8) system. The order of the lookups is controlled by the 'hosts' entry in nsswitch.conf(5).
struct hostent {
char *h_name; /* official name of host */
char **h_aliases; /* alias list */
inth_addrtype;/* host address type */
inth_length; /* length of address */
char **h_addr_list; /* list of addresses from name server */
};
#define h_addr h_addr_list[0] /* address, for backward compatibility */

The members of this structure are:

h_name	Official name of the host.
h_aliases	A `NULL -terminated` array of alternate names for the host.
h_addrtype	The type of address being returned; usually `AF_INET`.
h_length	The length, in bytes, of the address.
h_addr_list
	A `NULL -terminated` array of network addresses for the host. Host addresses are returned in network byte order.
h_addr	The first address in h_addr_list; this is for backward compatibility.

When using the nameserver, gethostbyname and gethostbyname2 will search for the named host in the current domain and its parents unless the name ends in a dot. If the name contains no dot, and if the environment variable "HOSTALIASES" contains the name of an alias file, the alias file will first be searched for an alias matching the input name. See hostname(7) for the domain search procedure and the alias file format.

The gethostbyname2 function is an evolution of gethostbyname which is intended to allow lookups in address families other than AF_INET, for example AF_INET6.

The sethostent function may be used to request the use of a connected TCP socket for queries. If the stayopen flag is non-zero, this sets the option to send all queries to the name server using TCP and to retain the connection after each call to gethostbyname, gethostbyname2 or gethostbyaddr. Otherwise, queries are performed using UDP datagrams.

The endhostent function closes the TCP connection.

The herror function writes a message to the diagnostic output consisting of the string argument string, the constant string "": "", and a message corresponding to the value of h_errno.

The hstrerror function returns a string which is the message text corresponding to the value of the err argument.

FILES

`/etc/hosts` `/etc/nsswitch.conf` `/etc/resolv.conf`

EXAMPLES

Print out the hostname associated with a specific IP address:
const char *ipstr = "127.0.0.1";
struct in_addr ip;
struct hostent *hp;

if (!inet_aton(ipstr, &ip))
errx(1, "can’t parse IP address %s", ipstr);

if ((hp = gethostbyaddr((const char *)&ip,
sizeof ip, AF_INET)) == NULL)
errx(1, "no name associated with %s", ipstr);

printf("name associated with %s is %s\n", ipstr, hp->h_name);

DIAGNOSTICS

Error return status from gethostbyname, gethostbyname2 and gethostbyaddr is indicated by return of a NULL pointer. The external integer h_errno may then be checked to see whether this is a temporary failure or an invalid or unknown host. The routine herror can be used to print an error message describing the failure. If its argument string is non- NULL, it is printed, followed by a colon and a space. The error message is printed with a trailing newline.

The variable h_errno can have the following values:

`HOST_NOT_FOUND`
	No such host is known.
`TRY_AGAIN`	This is usually a temporary error and means that the local server did not receive a response from an authoritative server. A retry at some later time may succeed.
`NO_RECOVERY`	Some unexpected server failure was encountered. This is a non-recoverable error.
`NO_DATA`	The requested name is valid but does not have an IP address; this is not a temporary error. This means that the name is known to the name server but there is no address associated with this name. Another type of request to the name server using this domain name will result in an answer; for example, a mail-forwarder may be registered for this domain.

CAVEAT

HISTORY

BUGS

getaddrinfo(3)

Created by Blin Media, 2008-2013

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