Ubuntu Manpage: ipv6 - Linux IPv6 protocol implementation

NAME

       ipv6 - Linux IPv6 protocol implementation

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/socket.h>
       #include <netinet/in.h>

       tcp6_socket = socket(AF_INET6, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
       raw6_socket = socket(AF_INET6, SOCK_RAW, protocol);
       udp6_socket = socket(AF_INET6, SOCK_DGRAM, protocol);

DESCRIPTION

Linux 2.2 optionally implements the Internet Protocol, version 6. This man page contains a description
of the IPv6 basic API as implemented by the Linux kernel and glibc 2.1. The interface is based on the
BSD sockets interface; see socket(7).

The IPv6 API aims to be mostly compatible with the IPv4 API (see ip(7)). Only differences are described
in this man page.

To bind an AF_INET6 socket to any process, the local address should be copied from the in6addr_any
variable which has in6_addr type. In static initializations, IN6ADDR_ANY_INIT may also be used, which
expands to a constant expression. Both of them are in network byte order.

The IPv6 loopback address (::1) is available in the global in6addr_loopback variable. For
initializations, IN6ADDR_LOOPBACK_INIT should be used.

IPv4 connections can be handled with the v6 API by using the v4-mapped-on-v6 address type; thus a program
needs to support only this API type to support both protocols. This is handled transparently by the
address handling functions in the C library.

IPv4 and IPv6 share the local port space. When you get an IPv4 connection or packet to an IPv6 socket,
its source address will be mapped to v6 and it will be mapped to v6.

Address format
struct sockaddr_in6 {
sa_family_t sin6_family; /* AF_INET6 */
in_port_t sin6_port; /* port number */
uint32_t sin6_flowinfo; /* IPv6 flow information */
struct in6_addr sin6_addr; /* IPv6 address */
uint32_t sin6_scope_id; /* Scope ID (new in 2.4) */
};

struct in6_addr {
unsigned char s6_addr[16]; /* IPv6 address */
};

sin6_family is always set to AF_INET6; sin6_port is the protocol port (see sin_port in ip(7));
sin6_flowinfo is the IPv6 flow identifier; sin6_addr is the 128-bit IPv6 address. sin6_scope_id is an ID
depending on the scope of the address. It is new in Linux 2.4. Linux supports it only for link-local
addresses, in that case sin6_scope_id contains the interface index (see netdevice(7))

IPv6 supports several address types: unicast to address a single host, multicast to address a group of
hosts, anycast to address the nearest member of a group of hosts (not implemented in Linux), IPv4-on-IPv6
to address an IPv4 host, and other reserved address types.

The address notation for IPv6 is a group of 8 4-digit hexadecimal numbers, separated with a ':'. "::"
stands for a string of 0 bits. Special addresses are ::1 for loopback and ::FFFF:<IPv4 address> for
IPv4-mapped-on-IPv6.

The port space of IPv6 is shared with IPv4.

Socket options
IPv6 supports some protocol-specific socket options that can be set with setsockopt(2) and read with
getsockopt(2). The socket option level for IPv6 is IPPROTO_IPV6. A boolean integer flag is zero when it
is false, otherwise true.

IPV6_ADDRFORM
Turn an AF_INET6 socket into a socket of a different address family. Only AF_INET is currently
supported for that. It is allowed only for IPv6 sockets that are connected and bound to a
v4-mapped-on-v6 address. The argument is a pointer to an integer containing AF_INET. This is
useful to pass v4-mapped sockets as file descriptors to programs that don't know how to deal with
the IPv6 API.

IPV6_ADD_MEMBERSHIP, IPV6_DROP_MEMBERSHIP
Control membership in multicast groups. Argument is a pointer to a struct ipv6_mreq.

IPV6_MTU
getsockopt(): Retrieve the current known path MTU of the current socket. Valid only when the
socket has been connected. Returns an integer.

setsockopt(): Set the MTU to be used for the socket. The MTU is limited by the device MTU or the
path MTU when path MTU discovery is enabled. Argument is a pointer to integer.

IPV6_MTU_DISCOVER
Control path-MTU discovery on the socket. See IP_MTU_DISCOVER in ip(7) for details.

IPV6_MULTICAST_HOPS
Set the multicast hop limit for the socket. Argument is a pointer to an integer. -1 in the value
means use the route default, otherwise it should be between 0 and 255.

IPV6_MULTICAST_IF
Set the device for outgoing multicast packets on the socket. This is allowed only for SOCK_DGRAM
and SOCK_RAW socket. The argument is a pointer to an interface index (see netdevice(7)) in an
integer.

IPV6_MULTICAST_LOOP
Control whether the socket sees multicast packets that it has send itself. Argument is a pointer
to boolean.

IPV6_RECVPKTINFO (since Linux 2.6.14)
Set delivery of the IPV6_PKTINFO control message on incoming datagrams. Such control messages
contain a struct in6_pktinfo, as per RFC 3542. Allowed only for SOCK_DGRAM or SOCK_RAW sockets.
Argument is a pointer to a boolean value in an integer.

IPV6_RTHDR, IPV6_AUTHHDR, IPV6_DSTOPTS, IPV6_HOPOPTS, IPV6_FLOWINFO, IPV6_HOPLIMIT
Set delivery of control messages for incoming datagrams containing extension headers from the
received packet. IPV6_RTHDR delivers the routing header, IPV6_AUTHHDR delivers the authentication
header, IPV6_DSTOPTS delivers the destination options, IPV6_HOPOPTS delivers the hop options,
IPV6_FLOWINFO delivers an integer containing the flow ID, IPV6_HOPLIMIT delivers an integer
containing the hop count of the packet. The control messages have the same type as the socket
option. All these header options can also be set for outgoing packets by putting the appropriate
control message into the control buffer of sendmsg(2). Allowed only for SOCK_DGRAM or SOCK_RAW
sockets. Argument is a pointer to a boolean value.

IPV6_RECVERR
Control receiving of asynchronous error options. See IP_RECVERR in ip(7) for details. Argument
is a pointer to boolean.

IPV6_ROUTER_ALERT
Pass forwarded packets containing a router alert hop-by-hop option to this socket. Allowed only
for SOCK_RAW sockets. The tapped packets are not forwarded by the kernel, it is the user's
responsibility to send them out again. Argument is a pointer to an integer. A positive integer
indicates a router alert option value to intercept. Packets carrying a router alert option with a
value field containing this integer will be delivered to the socket. A negative integer disables
delivery of packets with router alert options to this socket.

IPV6_UNICAST_HOPS
Set the unicast hop limit for the socket. Argument is a pointer to an integer. -1 in the value
means use the route default, otherwise it should be between 0 and 255.

IPV6_V6ONLY (since Linux 2.4.21 and 2.6)
If this flag is set to true (nonzero), then the socket is restricted to sending and receiving IPv6
packets only. In this case, an IPv4 and an IPv6 application can bind to a single port at the same
time.

If this flag is set to false (zero), then the socket can be used to send and receive packets to
and from an IPv6 address or an IPv4-mapped IPv6 address.

The argument is a pointer to a boolean value in an integer.

The default value for this flag is defined by the contents of the file
/proc/sys/net/ipv6/bindv6only. The default value for that file is 0 (false).

ERRORS

       ENODEV The  user  tried  to  bind(2)  to a link-local IPv6 address, but the sin6_scope_id in the supplied
              sockaddr_in6 structure is not a valid interface index.

VERSIONS

       Linux 2.4 will break binary compatibility for the sockaddr_in6 for 64-bit hosts by changing the alignment
       of  in6_addr  and adding an additional sin6_scope_id field.  The kernel interfaces stay compatible, but a
       program including sockaddr_in6 or in6_addr into other structures may not be.  This is not a  problem  for
       32-bit hosts like i386.

       The  sin6_flowinfo  field  is  new  in Linux 2.4.  It is transparently passed/read by the kernel when the
       passed address length contains it.  Some programs that pass a longer address buffer and  then  check  the
       outgoing address length may break.

NOTES

       The  sockaddr_in6  structure  is bigger than the generic sockaddr.  Programs that assume that all address
       types can be stored safely in a struct sockaddr need to be changed to  use  struct  sockaddr_storage  for
       that instead.

       SOL_IP,  SOL_IPV6, SOL_ICMPV6, and other SOL_* socket options are nonportable variants of IPPROTO_*.  See
       also ip(7).

BUGS

       The IPv6 extended API as in RFC 2292 is currently only partly implemented; although the  2.2  kernel  has
       near  complete support for receiving options, the macros for generating IPv6 options are missing in glibc
       2.1.

       IPSec support for EH and AH headers is missing.

       Flow label management is not complete and not documented here.

       This man page is not complete.

COLOPHON

       This page is part of release 5.10 of  the  Linux  man-pages  project.   A  description  of  the  project,
       information   about   reporting   bugs,   and   the  latest  version  of  this  page,  can  be  found  at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.