ether_ntoa, ether_aton, ether_ntohost, ether_hostton, or ether

AIX Version 4.3 Communications Technical Reference, Volume 2

ether_ntoa, ether_aton, ether_ntohost, ether_hostton, or ether_line Subroutine

Purpose

Maps 48-bit Ethernet numbers.

Library

Standard C Library (libc.a)

Syntax

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <net/if.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <netinet/if_ether.h>

char *ether_ntoa (EthernetNumber)
struct ether_addr *EthernetNumber;

struct ether_addr *other_aton(String);
char *string

int *ether_ntohost (HostName, EthernetNumber)
char *HostName;
struct ether_addr *EthernetNumber;

int *ether_hostton (HostName, EthernetNumber)
char *HostName;
struct ether_addr *EthernetNumber;

int *ether_line (Line, EthernetNumber, HostName)
char *Line, *HostName;
struct ether_addr *EthernetNumber;

Description

Attention: Do not use the ether_ntoa or ether_aton subroutine in a multithreaded environment.

The ether_ntoa subroutine maps a 48-bit Ethernet number pointed to by the EthernetNumber parameter to its standard ASCII representation. The subroutine returns a pointer to the ASCII string. The representation is in the form x:x:x:x:x:x: where x is a hexadecimal number between 0 and ff. The ether_aton subroutine converts the ASCII string pointed to by the String parameter to a 48-bit Ethernet number. This subroutine returns a null value if the string cannot be scanned correctly.

The ether_ntohost subroutine maps a 48-bit Ethernet number pointed to by the EthernetNumber parameter to its associated host name. The string pointed to by the HostName parameter must be long enough to hold the host name and a null character. The ether_hostton subroutine maps the host name string pointed to by the HostName parameter to its corresponding 48-bit Ethernet number. This subroutine modifies the Ethernet number pointed to by the EthernetNumber parameter.

The ether_line subroutine scans the line pointed to by line and sets the hostname pointed to by the HostName parameter and the Ethernet number pointed to by the EthernetNumber parameter to the information parsed from LINE.

Parameters

EthernetNumber	Points to an Ethernet number.
String	Points to an ASCII string.
HostName	Points to a host name.
Line	Points to a line.

Return Values

0	Indicates that the subroutine was successful.
non-zero	Indicates that the subroutine was not successful.

Implementation Specifics

These subroutines are part of Base Operating System (BOS) Runtime.

Files

/etc/ethers

Contains information about the known (48-bit) Ethernet addresses of hosts on the Internet.

Related Information

Subroutines Overview and List of Multithread Subroutines in AIX Version 4.3 General Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs.