ethers(3SOCKET) 					     Sockets Library Functions						   ethers(3SOCKET)

NAME

       ethers, ether_ntoa, ether_aton, ether_ntohost, ether_hostton, ether_line - Ethernet address mapping operations

SYNOPSIS

       cc [ flag ... ] file ... -lsocket -lnsl [ library ... ]
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <sys/ethernet.h>

       char *ether_ntoa(const struct ether_addr *e);

       struct ether_addr *ether_aton(const char *s);

       int ether_ntohost(char *hostname, const struct ether_addr *e);

       int ether_hostton(const char *hostname, struct ether_addr *e);

       int ether_line(const char *l, struct ether_addr *e, char *hostname);

DESCRIPTION

       These  routines	are useful for mapping 48 bit Ethernet numbers to their ASCII representations or their corresponding  host names, and vice
       versa.

       The function ether_ntoa() converts a 48 bit Ethernet number pointed to by  e to its standard  ASCII representation; it returns a pointer to
       the   ASCII  string.   The  representation  is  of  the	form x:x:x: x:x:x where  x is a hexadecimal number between 0 and ff.  The function
       ether_aton() converts an ASCII string in the standard representation back to a 48 bit Ethernet number;  the function returns  NULL  if  the
       string cannot be scanned successfully.

       The  function ether_ntohost() maps an Ethernet number (pointed to by e) to its associated hostname.  The string pointed to by hostname must
       be long enough to hold the  hostname and a  NULL character.  The function returns zero upon success and non-zero upon failure.	Inversely,
       the  function  ether_hostton()  maps  a	hostname  string  to its corresponding Ethernet number; the function modifies the  Ethernet number
       pointed to by e. The function also returns zero upon  success and non-zero upon failure. In order to do the mapping, both  these  functions
       may  lookup  one or more of the following sources: the ethers file, the NIS maps ethers.byname and ethers.byaddr and the NIS+ table ethers.
       The sources and their lookup order are specified in the	/etc/nsswitch.conf file. See nsswitch.conf(4) for details.

       The function  ether_line() scans a line, pointed to by l, and sets the hostname and the Ethernet  number,  pointed  to  by  e.  The  string
       pointed to by hostname must be long enough to hold the hostname and a  NULL character.  The function returns zero upon success and non-zero
       upon failure.  The format of the scanned line is described by  ethers(4).

FILES

       /etc/ethers	       Ethernet address to hostname database or domain

       /etc/nsswitch.conf      configuration file for the name service switch

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |MT-Level		     |MT-Safe			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       ethers(4), nsswitch.conf(4), attributes(5)

SunOS 5.10							    5 Apr 2004							   ethers(3SOCKET)