IPv6 Network Programming

Contents

Preface

About This Book

Write Portable Application Programs

Be Security Conscious When Writing Programs

Terminology and Portability

Introduction

I.I

1.2

1.3

1.4

A History of IPv6 and Its Key Features

Transition from IPv4-Only Internet to IPv4/v6 Dual Stack Internet

UNIX Socket Programming

IPv6 Architecture from a Programmer's Point of View

IPv6 Socket Programming

2. I AF_INET6: The Address Family for IPv6

2.2 Why Programs Need to Be Address-Family Independent?

2.3 Guidelines to Address-Family Independent Socket Programming

Porting Applications to Support IPv6

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

Making Existing Applications IPv6 Ready

Finding Where to Rewrite, Reorganizing Code

Rewriting Client Applications

Rewriting Server Applications

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ix

ix

×

I

I

4

6

10

13

13

14

17

27

27

27

29

31

vi Contents

4

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

Tips in IPv6 Programming

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

Parsing a IPv6 Address out of String

Issues with ":" As a Separator

Issues with an IPv4 Mapped Address

bind(2) Ordering and Conflicts

How IPv4 Traffic Gets Routed to Sockets

Portability across Systems

RFCs 2292/3542, Advanced API

Platform Support Status

A Practical Example

5. I Server Program Example--popa3d

5.2 Further Extensions

5.3 Client Program Example--nail

Coming updates to IPv6 APIs

RFC2553 "Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6"

RFC3493 "Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6"

RFC2292 "Advanced Sockets API for IPv6"

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49

49

50

51

52

52

54

54

59

59

62

62

81

83

125

165

RFC3542 "Advanced Sockets Application Program Interface (API) for IPv6" 233

IPv4-Mapped Address API Considered Harmful

IPv4-Mapped Addresses on the Wire Considered Harmful

Possible Abuse Against IPv6 Transition Technologies

An Extension of format for IPv6 Scoped Addresses

Protocol Independence Using the Sockets API

References

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333

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355