How can I get to know the IP address for interfaces in C?

Question

Let's say I'm running a program called IpAddresses.c. I want that program to get all IP addresses this device has according to each interface. Just like ifconfig. How can I do that?

I don't know much about ioctl, but I read it might help me.

Answer 1

Just use getifaddrs(). Here's an example:

#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <ifaddrs.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main ()
{
    struct ifaddrs *ifap, *ifa;
    struct sockaddr_in *sa;
    char *addr;

    getifaddrs (&ifap);
    for (ifa = ifap; ifa; ifa = ifa->ifa_next) {
        if (ifa->ifa_addr && ifa->ifa_addr->sa_family==AF_INET) {
            sa = (struct sockaddr_in *) ifa->ifa_addr;
            addr = inet_ntoa(sa->sin_addr);
            printf("Interface: %s\tAddress: %s\n", ifa->ifa_name, addr);
        }
    }

    freeifaddrs(ifap);
    return 0;
}

And here's the output I get on my machine:

Interface: lo   Address: 127.0.0.1
Interface: eth0 Address: 69.72.234.7
Interface: eth0:1       Address: 10.207.9.3

Answer 2

Here's some Linux sample code that might help you out.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <net/if.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

#define INT_TO_ADDR(_addr) \
(_addr & 0xFF), \
(_addr >> 8 & 0xFF), \
(_addr >> 16 & 0xFF), \
(_addr >> 24 & 0xFF)

int main()
{
    struct ifconf ifc;
    struct ifreq ifr[10];
    int sd, ifc_num, addr, bcast, mask, network, i;

    /* Create a socket so we can use ioctl on the file 
     * descriptor to retrieve the interface info. 
     */

    sd = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
    if (sd > 0)
    {
        ifc.ifc_len = sizeof(ifr);
        ifc.ifc_ifcu.ifcu_buf = (caddr_t)ifr;

        if (ioctl(sd, SIOCGIFCONF, &ifc) == 0)
        {
            ifc_num = ifc.ifc_len / sizeof(struct ifreq);
            printf("%d interfaces found\n", ifc_num);

            for (i = 0; i < ifc_num; ++i)
            {
                if (ifr[i].ifr_addr.sa_family != AF_INET)
                {
                    continue;
                }

                /* display the interface name */
                printf("%d) interface: %s\n", i+1, ifr[i].ifr_name);

                /* Retrieve the IP address, broadcast address, and subnet mask. */
                if (ioctl(sd, SIOCGIFADDR, &ifr[i]) == 0)
                {
                    addr = ((struct sockaddr_in *)(&ifr[i].ifr_addr))->sin_addr.s_addr;
                    printf("%d) address: %d.%d.%d.%d\n", i+1, INT_TO_ADDR(addr));
                }
                if (ioctl(sd, SIOCGIFBRDADDR, &ifr[i]) == 0)
                {
                    bcast = ((struct sockaddr_in *)(&ifr[i].ifr_broadaddr))->sin_addr.s_addr;
                    printf("%d) broadcast: %d.%d.%d.%d\n", i+1, INT_TO_ADDR(bcast));
                }
                if (ioctl(sd, SIOCGIFNETMASK, &ifr[i]) == 0)
                {
                    mask = ((struct sockaddr_in *)(&ifr[i].ifr_netmask))->sin_addr.s_addr;
                    printf("%d) netmask: %d.%d.%d.%d\n", i+1, INT_TO_ADDR(mask));
                }                

                /* Compute the current network value from the address and netmask. */
                network = addr & mask;
                printf("%d) network: %d.%d.%d.%d\n", i+1, INT_TO_ADDR(network));
            }                      
        }

        close(sd);
    }

    return 0;
}

Answer 3

The solution using getifaddrs() is great. I would suggest only one improve:

--- chrisaycock
+++ normando
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@

     getifaddrs (&ifap);
     for (ifa = ifap; ifa; ifa = ifa->ifa_next) {
-        if (ifa->ifa_addr->sa_family==AF_INET) {
+        if (ifa->ifa_addr && ifa->ifa_addr->sa_family==AF_INET) {
             sa = (struct sockaddr_in *) ifa->ifa_addr;
             addr = inet_ntoa(sa->sin_addr);
             printf("Interface: %s\tAddress: %s\n", ifa->ifa_name, addr);

Just because I myself got a Segmentation Fault.

Answer 4

See this other Stack Overflow question, Enumerating each IP address assigned to network interfaces.

In summary, you can use:

• ioctl(SIOCGIFCONF) -> the traditional ioctl
• getifaddrs() -> from BSDi, now also on Linux and the BSD's.
• RTNETLINK (Linux)

Answer 5

You could try something like that:

struct ifreq ifr[MAX_INTERFACES];
struct ifconf ifc;
memset(ifr, 0, sizeof(ifr));
ifc.ifc_len = sizeof(ifr);
ifc.ifc_req = ifr;

// Get the list of interfaces
if (ioctl(sock, SIOCGIFCONF, &ifc) == -1) {
    fprintf(stderr, "ioctl SIOCGIFCONF failed: %d", errno);
}

struct ifreq *ifr_iterator = ifc.ireq;
int i = 0;
size_t len;
while (i < ifc.ifc_len) {
   /* DO STUFF */
   // Maybe some more filtering based on SIOCGIFFLAGS 
   // Your code
   // Use ifr_iterator-> ...

   len = IFNAMSIZ + ifr_iterator->ifr_addr.sa_len;
   ifr_iterator = (struct ifreq *)((char *)ifr_iterator + len);
   i += len;
}

Answer 6

Check out the (Windows specific) IP Helper API - fortunately you don't need ioctl for this on Windows.

Answer 7

In case you also need IP6 addresses, you can extend the accepted answer like this:

#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <ifaddrs.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <netdb.h>

int main() {
    struct ifaddrs *ifap;
    getifaddrs(&ifap);
    for (struct ifaddrs *ifa = ifap; ifa; ifa = ifa->ifa_next) {
        if (ifa->ifa_addr && (ifa->ifa_addr->sa_family == AF_INET6)) {
            char addr[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN];
            getnameinfo(ifa->ifa_addr, sizeof(struct sockaddr_in6), addr, sizeof(addr), NULL, 0, NI_NUMERICHOST);
            printf("Interface: %s\tAddress: %s\n", ifa->ifa_name, addr);
        } else if (ifa->ifa_addr && ifa->ifa_addr->sa_family == AF_INET) {
            struct sockaddr_in *sa = (struct sockaddr_in *)ifa->ifa_addr;
            char *addr = inet_ntoa(sa->sin_addr);
            printf("Interface: %s\tAddress: %s\n", ifa->ifa_name, addr);
        }
    }
    freeifaddrs(ifap);
    return 0;
}