inet_addr()

Convert a string into a numeric Internet address

Synopsis:

#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>

in_addr_t inet_addr( const char * cp );

Library:

socket3r.lib, socket3s.lib

Description:

The inet_addr() routine converts a string representing an Internet address (for example, "127.0.0.1") into a numeric Internet address. (To convert a hostname such as "ftp.qnx.com" use gethostbyname().)

All Internet addresses are returned in network-byte order (bytes are ordered from left to right). All network numbers and local address parts are returned as machine-format integer values. For more information on Internet addresses, see inet_aton().

Returns:

An Internet address, or INADDR_NONE if an error occurs.

Classification:

Standard Unix, POSIX 1003.1g (draft)

Caveats:

Although the value INADDR_NONE (0xFFFFFFFF) is a valid broadcast address, inet_addr() always indicates failure when returning that value. The inet_aton() function doesn't share this problem.

See also:

inet_aton(), inet_network()