Class InetAddress

java.lang.Object

java.net.InetAddress

All Implemented Interfaces:

Serializable

Direct Known Subclasses:

Inet4Address, Inet6Address

public sealed class InetAddress
extends Object
implements Serializable
permits Inet4Address, Inet6Address

This class represents an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

An IP address is either a 32-bit or 128-bit unsigned number used by IP, a lower-level protocol on which protocols like UDP and TCP are built. The IP address architecture is defined by RFC 790: Assigned Numbers, RFC 1918: Address Allocation for Private Internets, RFC 2365: Administratively Scoped IP Multicast, and RFC 2373: IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture. An instance of an InetAddress consists of an IP address and possibly its corresponding host name (depending on whether it is constructed with a host name or whether it has already done reverse host name resolution).

Address types

Description of unicast and multicast address types

Address Type	Description
unicast	An identifier for a single interface. A packet sent to a unicast address is delivered to the interface identified by that address. The Unspecified Address -- Also called anylocal or wildcard address. It must never be assigned to any node. It indicates the absence of an address. One example of its use is as the target of bind, which allows a server to accept a client connection on any interface, in case the server host has multiple interfaces. The unspecified address must not be used as the destination address of an IP packet. The Loopback Addresses -- This is the address assigned to the loopback interface. Anything sent to this IP address loops around and becomes IP input on the local host. This address is often used when testing a client.
multicast	An identifier for a set of interfaces (typically belonging to different nodes). A packet sent to a multicast address is delivered to all interfaces identified by that address.

IP address scope

Link-local addresses are designed to be used for addressing on a single link for purposes such as auto-address configuration, neighbor discovery, or when no routers are present.

Site-local addresses are designed to be used for addressing inside of a site without the need for a global prefix.

Global addresses are unique across the internet.

Textual representation of IP addresses

The textual representation of an IP address is address family specific.

For IPv4 address format, please refer to the supported IPv4 address textual representations; For IPv6 address format, please refer to the supported IPv6 address textual representations.

There are a couple of System Properties affecting how IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are used.

Host Name Resolution

The InetAddress class provides methods to resolve host names to their IP addresses and vice versa. The actual resolution is delegated to an InetAddress resolver.

Host name-to-IP address resolution maps a host name to an IP address. For any host name, its corresponding IP address is returned.

Reverse name resolution means that for any IP address, the host associated with the IP address is returned.

The built-in InetAddress resolver implementation does host name-to-IP address resolution and vice versa through the use of a combination of local machine configuration information and network naming services such as the Domain Name System (DNS) and the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). The particular naming services that the built-in resolver uses by default depends on the configuration of the local machine.

InetAddress has a service provider mechanism for InetAddress resolvers that allows a custom InetAddress resolver to be used instead of the built-in implementation. InetAddressResolverProvider is the service provider class. Its API docs provide all the details on this mechanism.

InetAddress Caching

The InetAddress class has a cache to store successful as well as unsuccessful host name resolutions.

The default behavior is to cache entries for a finite (implementation dependent) period of time. The result of unsuccessful host name resolution is cached for a very short period of time (10 seconds) to improve performance.

If the default behavior is not desired, then a Java security property can be set to a different Time-to-live (TTL) value for positive caching. Likewise, a system admin can configure a different negative caching TTL value when needed or extend the usage of the stale data.

Three Java security properties control the TTL values used for positive and negative host name resolution caching:

networkaddress.cache.ttl

Indicates the caching policy for successful name lookups from the name service. The value is specified as an integer to indicate the number of seconds to cache the successful lookup. The default setting is to cache for an implementation specific period of time.

A value of -1 indicates "cache forever".

networkaddress.cache.stale.ttl

Indicates the caching policy for stale names. The value is specified as an integer to indicate the number of seconds that stale names will be kept in the cache. A name is considered stale if the TTL has expired and an attempt to lookup the host name again was not successful. This property is useful if it is preferable to use a stale name rather than fail due to an unsuccessful lookup. The default setting is to cache for an implementation specific period of time.

If the value of this property is larger than "networkaddress.cache.ttl" then "networkaddress.cache.ttl" will be used as a refresh interval of the name in the cache. For example, if this property is set to 1 day and "networkaddress.cache.ttl" is set to 30 seconds, then the positive response will be cached for 1 day but an attempt to refresh it will be done every 30 seconds.

A value of 0 (zero) or if the property is not set means do not use stale names. Negative values are ignored.

networkaddress.cache.negative.ttl (default: 10)

Indicates the caching policy for un-successful name lookups from the name service. The value is specified as an integer to indicate the number of seconds to cache the failure for un-successful lookups.

A value of 0 indicates "never cache". A value of -1 indicates "cache forever".

Sealed Class Hierarchy Graph:

Since:

1.0

External Specifications

• RFC 1918: Address Allocation for Private Internets
• RFC 2365: Administratively Scoped IP Multicast
• RFC 2373: IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture
• RFC 790: Assigned numbers

See Also:

• getByAddress(byte[])
• getByAddress(java.lang.String, byte[])
• getAllByName(java.lang.String)
• getByName(java.lang.String)
• getLocalHost()
• Serialized Form

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method	Description
boolean	equals(Object obj)	Compares this object against the specified object.
byte[]	getAddress()	Returns the raw IP address of this InetAddress object.
static InetAddress[]	getAllByName(String host)	Given the name of a host, returns an array of its IP addresses, based on the system-wide resolver.
static InetAddress	getByAddress(byte[] addr)	Returns an InetAddress object given the raw IP address .
static InetAddress	getByAddress(String host, byte[] addr)	Creates an InetAddress based on the provided host name and IP address.
static InetAddress	getByName(String host)	Determines the IP address of a host, given the host's name.
String	getCanonicalHostName()	Gets the fully qualified domain name for this IP address using the system-wide resolver.
String	getHostAddress()	Returns the IP address string in textual presentation.
String	getHostName()	Gets the host name for this IP address.
static InetAddress	getLocalHost()	Returns the address of the local host.
static InetAddress	getLoopbackAddress()	Returns the loopback address.
int	hashCode()	Returns a hashcode for this IP address.
boolean	isAnyLocalAddress()	Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a wildcard address.
boolean	isLinkLocalAddress()	Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a link local address.
boolean	isLoopbackAddress()	Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a loopback address.
boolean	isMCGlobal()	Utility routine to check if the multicast address has global scope.
boolean	isMCLinkLocal()	Utility routine to check if the multicast address has link scope.
boolean	isMCNodeLocal()	Utility routine to check if the multicast address has node scope.
boolean	isMCOrgLocal()	Utility routine to check if the multicast address has organization scope.
boolean	isMCSiteLocal()	Utility routine to check if the multicast address has site scope.
boolean	isMulticastAddress()	Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an IP multicast address.
boolean	isReachable(int timeout)	Test whether that address is reachable.
boolean	isReachable(NetworkInterface netif, int ttl, int timeout)	Test whether that address is reachable.
boolean	isSiteLocalAddress()	Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a site local address.
static InetAddress	ofLiteral(String ipAddressLiteral)	Creates an InetAddress based on the provided textual representation of an IP address.
String	toString()	Converts this IP address to a String.

Methods declared in class java.lang.Object

clone, finalize, getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Method Details

isMulticastAddress

public boolean isMulticastAddress()

Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an IP multicast address.

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the InetAddress is an IP multicast address

Since:

1.1

isAnyLocalAddress

public boolean isAnyLocalAddress()

Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a wildcard address.

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the InetAddress is a wildcard address.

Since:

1.4

isLoopbackAddress

public boolean isLoopbackAddress()

Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a loopback address.

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the InetAddress is a loopback address; or false otherwise.

Since:

1.4

isLinkLocalAddress

public boolean isLinkLocalAddress()

Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a link local address.

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the InetAddress is a link local address; or false if address is not a link local unicast address.

Since:

1.4

isSiteLocalAddress

public boolean isSiteLocalAddress()

Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a site local address.

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the InetAddress is a site local address; or false if address is not a site local unicast address.

Since:

1.4

isMCGlobal

public boolean isMCGlobal()

Utility routine to check if the multicast address has global scope.

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address has is a multicast address of global scope, false if it is not of global scope or it is not a multicast address

Since:

1.4

isMCNodeLocal

public boolean isMCNodeLocal()

Utility routine to check if the multicast address has node scope.

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address has is a multicast address of node-local scope, false if it is not of node-local scope or it is not a multicast address

Since:

1.4

isMCLinkLocal

public boolean isMCLinkLocal()

Utility routine to check if the multicast address has link scope.

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address has is a multicast address of link-local scope, false if it is not of link-local scope or it is not a multicast address

Since:

1.4

isMCSiteLocal

public boolean isMCSiteLocal()

Utility routine to check if the multicast address has site scope.

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address has is a multicast address of site-local scope, false if it is not of site-local scope or it is not a multicast address

Since:

1.4

isMCOrgLocal

public boolean isMCOrgLocal()

Utility routine to check if the multicast address has organization scope.

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address has is a multicast address of organization-local scope, false if it is not of organization-local scope or it is not a multicast address

Since:

1.4

isReachable

public boolean isReachable(int timeout)
                    throws IOException

Test whether that address is reachable. Best effort is made by the implementation to try to reach the host, but firewalls and server configuration may block requests resulting in an unreachable status while some specific ports may be accessible. A typical implementation will use ICMP ECHO REQUESTs if the privilege can be obtained, otherwise it will try to establish a TCP connection on port 7 (Echo) of the destination host.

The timeout value, in milliseconds, indicates the maximum amount of time the try should take. If the operation times out before getting an answer, the host is deemed unreachable. A negative value will result in an IllegalArgumentException being thrown.

Parameters:

timeout - the time, in milliseconds, before the call aborts

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address is reachable.

Throws:

IOException - if a network error occurs

IllegalArgumentException - if timeout is negative.

Since:

1.5

isReachable

public boolean isReachable(NetworkInterface netif,
 int ttl,
 int timeout)
                    throws IOException

Test whether that address is reachable. Best effort is made by the implementation to try to reach the host, but firewalls and server configuration may block requests resulting in a unreachable status while some specific ports may be accessible. A typical implementation will use ICMP ECHO REQUESTs if the privilege can be obtained, otherwise it will try to establish a TCP connection on port 7 (Echo) of the destination host.

The network interface and ttl parameters let the caller specify which network interface the test will go through and the maximum number of hops the packets should go through. A negative value for the ttl will result in an IllegalArgumentException being thrown.

The timeout value, in milliseconds, indicates the maximum amount of time the try should take. If the operation times out before getting an answer, the host is deemed unreachable. A negative value will result in an IllegalArgumentException being thrown.

Parameters:

netif - the NetworkInterface through which the test will be done, or null for any interface

ttl - the maximum numbers of hops to try or 0 for the default

timeout - the time, in milliseconds, before the call aborts

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address is reachable.

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - if either timeout or ttl are negative.

IOException - if a network error occurs

Since:

1.5

getHostName

public String getHostName()

Gets the host name for this IP address.

If this InetAddress was created with a host name, this host name will be remembered and returned; otherwise, a reverse name lookup will be performed and the result will be returned based on the system-wide resolver. If a lookup of the name service is required, call getCanonicalHostName.

Returns:

the host name for this IP address

See Also:

• getCanonicalHostName()

getCanonicalHostName

public String getCanonicalHostName()

Gets the fully qualified domain name for this IP address using the system-wide resolver.

The system-wide resolver will be used to do a reverse name lookup of the IP address. The lookup can fail for many reasons that include the host not being registered with the name service. If the resolver is unable to determine the fully qualified domain name, this method returns the textual representation of the IP address.

Returns:

the fully qualified domain name for this IP address. If the system-wide resolver wasn't able to determine the fully qualified domain name for the IP address, the textual representation of the IP address is returned instead.

Since:

1.4

getAddress

public byte[] getAddress()

Returns the raw IP address of this InetAddress object. The result is in network byte order: the highest order byte of the address is in getAddress()[0].

Returns:

the raw IP address of this object.

getHostAddress

public String getHostAddress()

Returns the IP address string in textual presentation.

Returns:

the raw IP address in a string format.

Since:

1.0.2

hashCode

public int hashCode()

Returns a hashcode for this IP address.

Overrides:

hashCode in class Object

Returns:

a hash code value for this IP address.

See Also:

• Object.equals(java.lang.Object)
• System.identityHashCode(java.lang.Object)

equals

public boolean equals(Object obj)

Compares this object against the specified object. The result is true if and only if the argument is not null and it represents the same IP address as this object.

Two instances of InetAddress represent the same IP address if the length of the byte arrays returned by getAddress is the same for both, and each of the array components is the same for the byte arrays.

Overrides:

equals in class Object

Parameters:

obj - the object to compare against.

Returns:

true if the objects are the same; false otherwise.

See Also:

• getAddress()

toString

public String toString()

Converts this IP address to a String. The string returned is of the form: hostname / literal IP address. If the host name is unresolved, no reverse lookup is performed. The hostname part will be represented by an empty string.

Overrides:

toString in class Object

Returns:

a string representation of this IP address.

getByAddress

public static InetAddress getByAddress(String host,
 byte[] addr)
                                throws UnknownHostException

Creates an InetAddress based on the provided host name and IP address. The system-wide resolver is not used to check the validity of the address.

The host name can either be a machine name, such as "www.example.com", or a textual representation of its IP address.

No validity checking is done on the host name either.

If addr specifies an IPv4 address an instance of Inet4Address will be returned; otherwise, an instance of Inet6Address will be returned.

IPv4 address byte array must be 4 bytes long and IPv6 byte array must be 16 bytes long

Parameters:

host - the specified host

addr - the raw IP address in network byte order

Returns:

an InetAddress object created from the raw IP address.

Throws:

UnknownHostException - if IP address is of illegal length

Since:

1.4

getByName

public static InetAddress getByName(String host)
                             throws UnknownHostException

Determines the IP address of a host, given the host's name.

The host name can either be a machine name, such as "www.example.com", or a textual representation of its IP address. If a literal IP address is supplied, only the validity of the address format is checked.

For host specified in literal IPv6 address, either the form defined in RFC 2732 or the literal IPv6 address format defined in RFC 2373 is accepted. IPv6 scoped addresses are also supported. See here for a description of IPv6 scoped addresses.

If the host is null or host.length() is equal to zero, then an InetAddress representing an address of the loopback interface is returned. See RFC 3330 section 2 and RFC 2373 section 2.5.3.

Parameters:

host - the specified host, or null.

Returns:

an IP address for the given host name.

Throws:

UnknownHostException - if no IP address for the host could be found, or if a scope_id was specified for a global IPv6 address.

External Specifications

• RFC 2373: IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture
• RFC 3330: Special-Use IPv4 Addresses

getAllByName

public static InetAddress[] getAllByName(String host)
                                  throws UnknownHostException

Given the name of a host, returns an array of its IP addresses, based on the system-wide resolver.

The host name can either be a machine name, such as "www.example.com", or a textual representation of its IP address. If a literal IP address is supplied, only the validity of the address format is checked.

For host specified in literal IPv6 address, either the form defined in RFC 2732 or the literal IPv6 address format defined in RFC 2373 is accepted. A literal IPv6 address may also be qualified by appending a scoped zone identifier or scope_id. The syntax and usage of scope_ids is described here.

If the host is null or host.length() is equal to zero, then an InetAddress representing an address of the loopback interface is returned. See RFC 3330 section 2 and RFC 2373 section 2.5.3.

Parameters:

host - the name of the host, or null.

Returns:

an array of all the IP addresses for a given host name.

Throws:

UnknownHostException - if no IP address for the host could be found, or if a scope_id was specified for a global IPv6 address.

External Specifications

• RFC 2373: IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture
• RFC 3330: Special-Use IPv4 Addresses

getLoopbackAddress

public static InetAddress getLoopbackAddress()

Returns the loopback address.

The InetAddress returned will represent the IPv4 loopback address, 127.0.0.1, or the IPv6 loopback address, ::1. The IPv4 loopback address returned is only one of many in the form 127.*.*.*

Returns:

the InetAddress loopback instance.

Since:

1.7

ofLiteral

public static InetAddress ofLiteral(String ipAddressLiteral)

Creates an InetAddress based on the provided textual representation of an IP address.

The provided IP address literal is parsed as an IPv4 address literal first. If it cannot be parsed as an IPv4 address literal, then the method attempts to parse it as an IPv6 address literal. If neither attempts succeed an IllegalArgumentException is thrown.

This method doesn't block, i.e. no reverse lookup is performed.

Parameters:

ipAddressLiteral - the textual representation of an IP address.

Returns:

an InetAddress object with no hostname set, and constructed from the provided IP address literal.

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - if the ipAddressLiteral cannot be parsed as an IPv4 or IPv6 address literal.

NullPointerException - if the ipAddressLiteral is null.

Since:

22

See Also:

• Inet4Address.ofLiteral(String)
• Inet6Address.ofLiteral(String)
• Inet4Address.ofPosixLiteral(String)

getByAddress

public static InetAddress getByAddress(byte[] addr)
                                throws UnknownHostException

Returns an InetAddress object given the raw IP address . The argument is in network byte order: the highest order byte of the address is in getAddress()[0].

This method doesn't block, i.e. no reverse lookup is performed.

IPv4 address byte array must be 4 bytes long and IPv6 byte array must be 16 bytes long

Parameters:

addr - the raw IP address in network byte order

Returns:

an InetAddress object created from the raw IP address.

Throws:

UnknownHostException - if IP address is of illegal length

Since:

1.4

getLocalHost

public static InetAddress getLocalHost()
                                throws UnknownHostException

Returns the address of the local host. This is achieved by retrieving the name of the host from the system, then resolving that name into an InetAddress.

Note: The resolved address may be cached for a short period of time.

Returns:

the address of the local host.

Throws:

UnknownHostException - if the local host name could not be resolved into an address.

See Also:

• getByName(java.lang.String)