NAME

       htobe16,  htole16,  be16toh,  le16toh,  htobe32,  htole32,  be32toh,  le32toh, htobe64, htole64, be64toh,
       le64toh - convert values between host and big-/little-endian byte order

SYNOPSIS

       #define _BSD_SOURCE             /* See feature_test_macros(7) */
       #include <endian.h>

       uint16_t htobe16(uint16_t host_16bits);
       uint16_t htole16(uint16_t host_16bits);
       uint16_t be16toh(uint16_t big_endian_16bits);
       uint16_t le16toh(uint16_t little_endian_16bits);

       uint32_t htobe32(uint32_t host_32bits);
       uint32_t htole32(uint32_t host_32bits);
       uint32_t be32toh(uint32_t big_endian_32bits);
       uint32_t le32toh(uint32_t little_endian_32bits);

       uint64_t htobe64(uint64_t host_64bits);
       uint64_t htole64(uint64_t host_64bits);
       uint64_t be64toh(uint64_t big_endian_64bits);
       uint64_t le64toh(uint64_t little_endian_64bits);

DESCRIPTION

       These functions convert the byte encoding of integer values from the byte order that the current CPU (the
       "host") uses, to and from little-endian and big-endian byte order.

       The  number,  nn,  in  the  name  of each function indicates the size of integer handled by the function,
       either 16, 32, or 64 bits.

       The functions with names of the form "htobenn" convert from host byte order to big-endian order.

       The functions with names of the form "htolenn" convert from host byte order to little-endian order.

       The functions with names of the form "benntoh" convert from big-endian order to host byte order.

       The functions with names of the form "lenntoh" convert from little-endian order to host byte order.

VERSIONS

       These functions were added to glibc in version 2.9.

CONFORMING TO

       These functions are nonstandard.  Similar functions are present on the BSDs, where  the  required  header
       file is <sys/endian.h> instead of <endian.h>.  Unfortunately, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and glibc haven't followed
       the original OpenBSD naming convention for these functions, whereby the nn component  always  appears  at
       the  end  of  the  function  name  (thus,  for  example, in NetBSD, FreeBSD, and glibc, the equivalent of
       OpenBSDs "betoh32" is "be32toh").

NOTES

       These functions are similar to the older byteorder(3) family of functions.   For  example,  be32toh()  is
       identical to ntohl().

       The  advantage  of  the  byteorder(3) functions is that they are standard functions available on all UNIX
       systems.  On the other hand, the fact that they were designed for use in the context of TCP/IP means that
       they lack the 64-bit and little-endian variants described in this page.

EXAMPLE

       The program below display the results of converting an integer from host byte order to both little-endian
       and big-endian byte order.  Since host byte order is either little-endian  or  big-endian,  only  one  of
       these  conversions  will  have  an  effect.   When  we run this program on a little-endian system such as
       x86-32, we see the following:

           $ ./a.out
           x.u32 = 0x44332211
           htole32(x.u32) = 0x44332211
           htobe32(x.u32) = 0x11223344

   Program source

       #include <endian.h>
       #include <stdint.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
           union {
            uint32_t u32;
            uint8_t arr[4];
           } x;

           x.arr[0] = 0x11;     /* Lowest-address byte */
           x.arr[1] = 0x22;
           x.arr[2] = 0x33;
           x.arr[3] = 0x44;     /* Highest-address byte */

           printf("x.u32 = 0x%x\n", x.u32);
           printf("htole32(x.u32) = 0x%x\n", htole32(x.u32));
           printf("htobe32(x.u32) = 0x%x\n", htobe32(x.u32));

           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO

       byteorder(3)

COLOPHON

       This page is part of release 3.54 of the Linux man-pages project.  A  description  of  the  project,  and
       information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.