RFC 3493 (rfc3493) - Page 2 of 39

Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6

RFC 3493       Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6  February 2003


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction................................................3
   2.  Design Considerations.......................................4
       2.1  What Needs to be Changed...............................4
       2.2  Data Types.............................................6
       2.3  Headers................................................6
       2.4  Structures.............................................6
   3.  Socket Interface............................................6
       3.1  IPv6 Address Family and Protocol Family................6
       3.2  IPv6 Address Structure.................................7
       3.3  Socket Address Structure for 4.3BSD-Based Systems......7
       3.4  Socket Address Structure for 4.4BSD-Based Systems......9
       3.5  The Socket Functions...................................9
       3.6  Compatibility with IPv4 Applications..................10
       3.7  Compatibility with IPv4 Nodes.........................11
       3.8  IPv6 Wildcard Address.................................11
       3.9  IPv6 Loopback Address.................................13
       3.10 Portability Additions.................................14
   4.  Interface Identification...................................16
       4.1  Name-to-Index.........................................17
       4.2  Index-to-Name.........................................17
       4.3  Return All Interface Names and Indexes................18
       4.4  Free Memory...........................................18
   5.  Socket Options.............................................18
       5.1  Unicast Hop Limit.....................................19
       5.2  Sending and Receiving Multicast Packets...............19
       5.3  IPV6_V6ONLY option for AF_INET6 Sockets...............22
   6.  Library Functions..........................................22
       6.1  Protocol-Independent Nodename and
            Service Name Translation..............................23
       6.2  Socket Address Structure to Node Name
            and Service Name......................................28
       6.3  Address Conversion Functions..........................31
       6.4  Address Testing Macros................................33
   7.  Summary of New Definitions.................................33
   8.  Security Considerations....................................35
   9.  Changes from RFC 2553......................................35
   10. Acknowledgments............................................36
   11. References.................................................37
   12. Authors' Addresses.........................................38
   13. Full Copyright Statement...................................39









Gilligan, et al.             Informational