getprotobyname()

Get a protocol entry, given a name

Synopsis:

#include <netdb.h>

struct protoent * getprotobyname( const char * name );

Arguments:

name: The name of the protocol whose entry you want to get.

Library:

libsocket

Use the -l socket option to qcc to link against this library.

Description:

The getprotobyname() function gets the entry for the given name from the protocol database, /etc/protocols. This function returns a pointer to a structure of type protoent, which contains the broken-out fields of a line in the network protocol database.

The setprotoent() function opens and rewinds the file. If you pass a nonzero stayopen argument to setprotoent(), the protocol database isn't closed after each call to getprotobyname() or getprotobynumber().

The getprotobyname() and getprotobynumber() functions sequentially search from the beginning of the file until a matching protocol name or protocol number is found, or until EOF is encountered.

Returns:

A pointer to a valid protoent structure, or NULL if an error occurs.

Files:

/etc/protocols: Protocol name database file.

Classification:

POSIX 1003.1

Safety:
Cancellation point	Yes
Interrupt handler	No
Signal handler	No
Thread	No

Caveats:

This function uses static data; if you need the data for future use, copy it before any subsequent calls overwrite it.

Currently, only the Internet protocols are understood.