redhat man page for inet_pton

inet_pton(3)						     Linux Programmer's Manual						      inet_pton(3)

NAME
       inet_pton - Create a network address structure

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <sys/socket.h>
       #include <arpa/inet.h>

       int inet_pton(int af, const char *src, void *dst);

DESCRIPTION
       This  function converts the character string src into a network address structure in the af address family, then copies the network address
       structure to dst.

       inet_pton(3) extends the inet_addr(3) function to support multiple address families, inet_addr(3) is now considered  to	be  deprecated	in
       favor of inet_pton(3).  The following address families are currently supported:

       AF_INET
	      src  points  to  a character string containing an IPv4 network address in the dotted-quad format, "ddd.ddd.ddd.ddd".  The address is
	      converted to a struct in_addr and copied to dst, which must be sizeof(struct in_addr) bytes long.

       AF_INET6
	      src points to a character string containing an IPv6 network address in any allowed IPv6 address format.  The address is converted to
	      a struct in6_addr and copied to dst, which must be sizeof(struct in6_addr) bytes long.

       Certain legacy hex and octal formats of AF_INET addresses are not supported by inet_pton, which rejects them.

RETURN VALUE
       inet_pton returns a negative value and sets errno to EAFNOSUPPORT if af does not contain a valid address family.  0 is returned if src does
       not contain a character string representing a valid network address in the specified address family.  A positive value is returned  if  the
       network address was successfully converted.

SEE ALSO
       inet_ntop(3)

BUGS
       AF_INET6 does not recognize IPv4 addresses.  An explicit IPv6-mapped IPv4 address must be supplied in src instead.

Linux Man Page							    2000-12-18							      inet_pton(3)