UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

       The  getipnodebyname() and getipnodebyaddr() functions return the names
       and addresses of a network host.  These functions return a  pointer  to
       the following structure:

           struct  hostent {
               char  *h_name;
               char **h_aliases;
               int    h_addrtype;
               int    h_length;
               char **h_addr_list;
           };

       These functions replace the gethostbyname(3) and gethostbyaddr(3) func‐
       tions, which could only access the IPv4 network  address  family.   The
       getipnodebyname()  and  getipnodebyaddr() functions can access multiple
       network address families.