Manual Pages  — LINK_ADDR

link_addr, link_ntoa – elementary address specification routines for link level access

LIBRARY SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION RETURN VALUES SEE ALSO HISTORY BUGS

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

#include <sys/types.h>

#include <sys/socket.h>

#include <net/if_dl.h>

void
link_addr(const char *addr, struct sockaddr_dl *sdl);

char *
link_ntoa(const struct sockaddr_dl *sdl);

The link_ntoa() function always returns a null terminated string. The link_addr() function has no return value. (See BUGS.)

The link_addr() and link_ntoa() functions appeared in BSD 4.3 Reno .

The returned values for link_ntoa reside in a static memory area.

The function link_addr() should diagnose improperly formed input, and there should be an unambiguous way to recognize this.

If the sdl_len field of the link socket address sdl is 0, link_ntoa() will not insert a colon before the interface address bytes. If this translated address is given to link_addr() without inserting an initial colon, the latter will not interpret it correctly.