NAME

Net::Interface - Perl extension to access network interfaces

SYNOPSIS

  use Net::Interface qw(
        IFF_UP
        IFF_BROADCAST
        IFF_DEBUG
        IFF_LOOPBACK
        IFF_POINTOPOINT
        IFF_NOTRAILERS
        IFF_RUNNING
        IFF_NOARP
        IFF_PROMISC
        IFF_ALLMULTI
        IFF_MASTER
        IFF_SLAVE
        IFF_MULTICAST
        IFF_SOFTHEADERS
        IFHWADDRLEN
        IFNAMSIZ
        mac_bin2hex
  );

    or

  use Net::Interface qw(:constants mac_bin2hex);

    or for methods only

  require Net::Interface;

METHODS

  @all_ifs = Net::Interface->interfaces();

  foreach(@all_ifs) { print $_->name,"\n" };

  $if = Net::Interface->new ('eth0');

  my $name = $if->name;

  Get or Set
  $naddr = $if->address($naddr);
  $naddr = $if->broadcast($naddr);
  $naddr = $if->netmask($naddr);
  $naddr = $if->destination($naddr);
    or
  ($sa_family,$size,$naddr) = $if->address($naddr);
  ($sa_family,$size,$naddr) = $if->broadcast($naddr);
  ($sa_family,$size,$naddr) = $if->netmask($naddr);
  ($sa_family,$size,$naddr) = $if->destination($naddr);

  $mac =$if->hwaddress($hwaddr);
    or
  ($sa_family,$size,$hwaddr) = $if->hwaddress($hwaddr);

  $val = $if->flags($val);
  $val = $if->mtu ($val);
  $val = $if->metric($val);

FUNCTIONS

  $hexstring = mac_bin2hex(scalar $if->hwaddres);

DESCRIPTION

Net::Interface is designed to make the use of ifconfig(1) and friends unnecessary from within Perl. It provides methods to get at set all the attributes of an interface, and even create new logical or physical interfaces (if your O/S supports it).

Scalar context

The Get methods:

  $naddr = $if->address();
  $naddr = $if->broadcast();
  $naddr = $if->netmask();
  $naddr = $if->destination();

return a network address in binary form.

  $mac = $if->hwaddress();

returns a binary number which can be converted to the hex MAC address using unpack("H*",$val).

The methods:

  $val = $if->flags();
  $naddr = $if->mtu();
  $naddr = $if->metric();

return numbers or bit patterns.

Array context

The methods:

  ($sa_family,$size,$naddr) = $if->address
  ($sa_family,$size,$naddr) = $if->broadcast
  ($sa_family,$size,$naddr) = $if->netmask
  ($sa_family,$size,$naddr) = $if->destination

return a three byte array of the form:

        address family          (AF_INET, etc...)
        size of address
        address as in Scalar context above

  ($sa_family,$size,$hwaddr) = $if->hwaddress();

returns a three byte array of the form:

        address family          (AF_LOCAL)
        size of address
        binary MAC address

Set methods

Where it is supported by the OS, the methods above may be used to set a value with the syntax:

        $optional = $if->method($value);
        @optional = $if->method($value);

Functions

• $hexstring = mac_bin2hex(scalar $if->hwaddress);

  Converts the binary MAC address returned by the hwaddress method into a colon separated series of hex octets representing the MAC address of the hardware interface.

    input:        binary MAC address
    returns:      hex string MAC address
  
          i.e.  00:A0:CC:26:D3:80

AUTHOR

  Stephen Zander <gibreel@pobox.com>

  recent updates by:
  Jerrad Pierce jpierce@cpan.org
  Michael Robinton <michael@bizsystems.com>

COPYRIGHT 1998, Stephen Zander. All rights reserved.

  Parts of the text of this README copyright 1996,1997 Graham Barr.
  All rights reserved.

  This library is free software; you can redistribute it 
  and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

  Copyright 2006 Michael Robinton
  This library is free software; you can redistribute it 
  and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

perl(1), ifconfig(8)