libaddr, a C++ library to handle network IP addresses in IPv4 and IPv6.

Introduction

This library is used to parse strings of IP addresses to lists of binary IP addresses ready to be used by functions such as bind(), send(), recv(), etc.

The library supports multiple addresses separated by commas and/or spaces, ports, and CIDR masks. It can check whether an address matches another taking the mask in account. It can sort IPs numerically. It can determine the type of an IP address (i.e. is it a local address, a private address, a public address?)

The library also has a function to read IP addresses from your computer interfaces and return that list. Very practical to know whether an IP address represents your computer or not.

Usage

The library is composed of three main classes:

• addr

The address class holds one address, a port, a protocol and a few other parts. This is what one uses to connect or listen with an address.

The address is kept by addr in an IPv6 address structure.

By default the CIDR of the address is all 1s (i.e. no masking, all bits considered important.) The mask is always 128 bits. If you are dealing with IPv4, make sure that the first 12 bytes are set to 255.

The class also offers a set of functions to transform the binary address it is holding to a string.

• addr_range

It is possible to define a range of addresses and ports. This class holds a 'from' address and a 'to' address. By default neither is defined. You have to call the set_from() and set_to() functions.

The addr_range::vector_t is what the addr_parser returns after parsing a string representing one of more addresses.

Note

The range is functional, however, the parser does not yet support parsing range of addresses and ports.

• addr_parser

The parser is used to transform a string to an address.

It supports many variations of its input, which are handled by the 'allow' flags. The set_allow() and get_allow() functions can be used to tweak the parser in supporting such and such feature.

By default, the input is expected to be an address and a port separated by a colon (i.e. "1.2.3.4:1234" in IPv4 and "[::1]:1234" in IPv6.)

Parser

The parser supports the following syntax (ranges are not yet supported and they do not appear in the following list):

When accepting multiple addresses separated by commas or spaces, the number of commas and spaces separating two address is not significant. The input string can also start or end with commas and spaces. The following variable defines exactly two IP address:

(note that the parser should not be passed the "addresses=" part.)