INET(4F)
NAME
inet − Internet protocol family
USAGE
#include <sys/types.h> #include <netinet/in.h>
DESCRIPTION
The Internet protocol family is a collection of protocols layered atop the Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and utilizing the Internet address format. The Internet family provides protocol support for the SOCK_STREAM and SOCK_DGRAM socket types.
ADDRESSING
Internet addresses are four-byte quantities, stored in network standard format. The include file <netinet/in.h> defines this address as a discriminated union.
Sockets bound to the Internet protocol family utilize the following addressing structure, struct sockaddr_in { short sin_family; u_short sin_port; struct in_addr sin_addr; char sin_zero[8]; }; Sockets may be created with the address INADDR_ANY to effect “wildcard” matching on incoming messages.
PROTOCOLS
The Internet protocol family is comprised of the IP transport protocol, Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). TCP is used to support the SOCK_STREAM abstraction while UDP is used to support the SOCK_DGRAM abstraction. The ICMP message and IP protocols are not directly accessible.