RFC 2553 (rfc2553) - Page 2 of 41

Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6

RFC 2553       Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6     March 1999


Table of Contents

   1. Introduction.................................................3
   2. Design Considerations........................................3
   2.1 What Needs to be Changed....................................4
   2.2 Data Types..................................................5
   2.3 Headers.....................................................5
   2.4 Structures..................................................5
   3. Socket Interface.............................................6
   3.1 IPv6 Address Family and Protocol Family.....................6
   3.2 IPv6 Address Structure......................................6
   3.3 Socket Address Structure for 4.3BSD-Based Systems...........7
   3.4 Socket Address Structure for 4.4BSD-Based Systems...........8
   3.5 The Socket Functions........................................9
   3.6 Compatibility with IPv4 Applications.......................10
   3.7 Compatibility with IPv4 Nodes..............................10
   3.8 IPv6 Wildcard Address......................................11
   3.9 IPv6 Loopback Address......................................12
   3.10 Portability Additions.....................................13
   4. Interface Identification....................................16
   4.1 Name-to-Index..............................................16
   4.2 Index-to-Name..............................................17
   4.3 Return All Interface Names and Indexes.....................17
   4.4 Free Memory................................................18
   5. Socket Options..............................................18
   5.1 Unicast Hop Limit..........................................18
   5.2 Sending and Receiving Multicast Packets....................19
   6. Library Functions...........................................21
   6.1 Nodename-to-Address Translation............................21
   6.2 Address-To-Nodename Translation............................24
   6.3 Freeing memory for getipnodebyname and getipnodebyaddr.....26
   6.4 Protocol-Independent Nodename and Service Name Translation.26
   6.5 Socket Address Structure to Nodename and Service Name......29
   6.6 Address Conversion Functions...............................31
   6.7 Address Testing Macros.....................................32
   7. Summary of New Definitions..................................33
   8. Security Considerations.....................................35
   9. Year 2000 Considerations....................................35
   Changes From RFC 2133..........................................35
   Acknowledgments................................................38
   References.....................................................39
   Authors' Addresses.............................................40
   Full Copyright Statement.......................................41








Gilligan, et. al.            Informational