man pages section 3: Networking Library Functions

if_nametoindex(3XNET)

Name

if_nametoindex, if_indextoname, if_nameindex, if_freenameindex– functions to map Internet Protocol network interface names and interface indexes

Synopsis

cc [ flag... ] file... -lxnet [ library... ]
#include <net/if.h>

unsigned int if_nametoindex(const char *ifname);

char *if_indextoname(unsigned int ifindex, char *ifname);

struct if_nameindex *if_nameindex(void)

void if_freenameindex(struct if_nameindex *ptr);

Parameters

These functions support the following parameters:

ifname: interface name
ifindex: interface index
ptr: pointer returned by if_nameindex()

Description

This API defines two functions that map between an Internet Protocol network interface name and index, a third function that returns all the interface names and indexes, and a fourth function to return the dynamic memory allocated by the previous function.

Network interfaces are normally known by names such as eri0, sl1, ppp2, and the like. The ifname argument must point to a buffer of at least IF_NAMESIZE bytes into which the interface name corresponding to the specified index is returned. IF_NAMESIZE is defined in <net/if.h> and its value includes a terminating null byte at the end of the interface name.

if_nametoindex()

The if_nametoindex() function returns the interface index corresponding to the interface name pointed to by the ifname pointer. If the specified interface name does not exist, the return value is 0, and errno is set to ENXIO. If there was a system error, such as running out of memory, the return value is 0 and errno is set to the proper value, for example, ENOMEM.

if_indextoname()

The if_indextoname() function maps an interface index into its corresponding name. This pointer is also the return value of the function. If there is no interface corresponding to the specified index, NULL is returned, and errno is set to ENXIO, if there was a system error, such as running out of memory, if_indextoname() returns NULL and errno would be set to the proper value, for example, ENOMEM.

*if_nameindex()

The if_nameindex() function returns an array of if_nameindex structures, one structure per interface. The if_nameindex structure holds the information about a single interface and is defined when the <net/if.h> header is included:

struct if_nameindex {         
    unsigned int   if_index;  /* 1, 2, ... */         
    char           *if_name;   /* null terminated name: "eri0", ... */
};

The end of the array of structures is indicated by a structure with an if_index of 0 and an if_name of NULL. The function returns a null pointer upon an error and sets errno to the appropriate value. The memory used for this array of structures along with the interface names pointed to by the if_name members is obtained dynamically. This memory is freed by the if_freenameindex() function.

if_freenameindex()

The if_freenameindex() function frees the dynamic memory that was allocated by if_nameindex(). The argument to this function must be a pointer that was returned by if_nameindex().

Attributes

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Availability	SUNWcsl (32-bit)
	SUNWcslx (64-bit)
Interface Stability	Standard
MT-Level	MT-Safe