CONTENTS

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Header

The header has the following definition:
struct ip6_hdr {
union {
struct ip6_hdrctl {
u_int32_t ip6_un1_flow; /* 20 bits of flow ID */
u_int16_t ip6_un1_plen; /* payload length */
u_int8_t ip6_un1_nxt; /* next header */
u_int8_t ip6_un1_hlim; /* hop limit */
} ip6_un1;
u_int8_t ip6_un2_vfc; /* version and class */
} ip6_ctlun;
struct in6_addr ip6_src; /* source address */
struct in6_addr ip6_dst; /* destination address */
} __packed;

#define ip6_vfc ip6_ctlun.ip6_un2_vfc
#define ip6_flow ip6_ctlun.ip6_un1.ip6_un1_flow
#define ip6_plen ip6_ctlun.ip6_un1.ip6_un1_plen
#define ip6_nxt ip6_ctlun.ip6_un1.ip6_un1_nxt
#define ip6_hlim ip6_ctlun.ip6_un1.ip6_un1_hlim
#define ip6_hops ip6_ctlun.ip6_un1.ip6_un1_hlim

The following socket options are supported:

The IPV6_PKTINFO, IPV6_HOPLIMIT, IPV6_HOPOPTS, IPV6_DSTOPTS, and IPV6_RTHDR options will return ancillary data along with payload contents in subsequent recvmsg(2) calls with cmsg_level set to IPPROTO_IPV6 and cmsg_type set to respective option name value (e.g., IPV6_HOPTLIMIT). These options may also be used directly as ancillary cmsg_type values in sendmsg(2) to set options on the packet being transmitted by the call. The cmsg_level value must be IPPROTO_IPV6. For these options, the ancillary data object value format is the same as the value returned as explained for each when received with recvmsg(2).

Note that using sendmsg(2) to specify options on particular packets works only on UDP and raw sockets. To manipulate header options for packets on TCP sockets, only the socket options may be used.

In some cases, there are multiple APIs defined for manipulating an IPv6 header field. A good example is the outgoing interface for multicast datagrams, which can be set by the IPV6_MULTICAST_IF socket option, through the IPV6_PKTINFO option, and through the sin6_scope_id field of the socket address passed to the sendto(2) system call.

Raw Sockets

By using connect(2) or bind(2), raw socket input is constrained to only packets with their source address matching the socket destination address if connect(2) was used and to packets with their destination address matching the socket source address if bind(2) was used.

If the proto argument to socket(2) is zero, the default protocol (IPPROTO_RAW) is used for outgoing packets. For incoming packets, protocols recognized by kernel are not passed to the application socket (e.g., tcp(4) and udp(4)) except for some ICMPv6 messages. The ICMPv6 messages not passed to raw sockets include echo, timestamp, and address mask requests. If proto is non-zero, only packets with this protocol will be passed to the socket.

IPv6 fragments are also not passed to application sockets until they have been reassembled. If reception of all packets is desired, link-level access (such as bpf(4)) must be used instead.

Outgoing packets automatically have an IPv6 header prepended to them (based on the destination address and the protocol number the socket was created with). Incoming packets are received by an application without the IPv6 header or any extension headers.

/* Create socket. */

(void)memset(&m, 0, sizeof(m));
(void)memset(&iov, 0, sizeof(iov));

iov[0].iov_base = data; /* buffer for packet payload */
iov[0].iov_len = sizeof(data); /* expected packet length */

m.msg_name = &from;/* sockaddr_in6 of peer */
m.msg_namelen = sizeof(from);
m.msg_iov = iov;
m.msg_iovlen = 1;
m.msg_control = (caddr_t)buf; /* buffer for control messages */
m.msg_controllen = sizeof(buf);

/*
* Enable the hop limit value from received packets to be
* returned along with the payload.
*/
optval = 1;
if (setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IPV6, IPV6_HOPLIMIT, &optval,
sizeof(optval)) == -1)
err(1, "setsockopt");

The following errors specific to IPv6 may occur when setting or getting header options:

SEE ALSO

STANDARDS