Structure that describes an Internet host
Synopsis:
#include <netdb.h>
struct hostent {
char * h_name;
char ** h_aliases;
int h_addrtype;
int h_length;
char ** h_addr_list;
};
#define h_addr h_addr_list[0]
Description:
This structure describes an Internet host.
It contains either the information obtained from a name server, or
broken-out fields from a line in
/etc/hosts.
The members of this structure are:
- h_name
- The official name of the host.
- h_aliases
- A zero-terminated array of alternate names for the host.
- h_addrtype
- The type of address being returned; currently always AF_INET.
- h_length
- The length of the address, in bytes.
- h_addr_list
- A zero-terminated array of network addresses for the host.
Host addresses are returned in network byte order.
A #define statement is used to define the following:
- h_addr
- The first address in h_addr_list.
This is for backward compatibility.