BYTEORDER(3)              OpenBSD Programmer's Manual             BYTEORDER(3)

NAME
     htonl, htons, ntohl, ntohs, htobe32, htobe16, betoh32, betoh16, htole32,
     htole16, letoh32, letoh16, swap32, swap16 - convert values between dif-
     ferent byte orderings



SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <machine/endian.h>

     u_int32_t
     htonl(u_int32_t host32);

     u_int16_t
     htons(u_int16_t host16);

     u_int32_t
     ntohl(u_int32_t net32);

     u_int16_t
     ntohs(u_int16_t net16);

     u_int32_t
     htobe32(u_int32_t host32);

     u_int16_t
     htobe16(u_int16_t host16);

     u_int32_t
     betoh32(u_int32_t big32);

     u_int16_t
     betoh16(u_int16_t big16);

     u_int32_t
     htole32(u_int32_t host32);

     u_int16_t
     htole16(u_int16_t host16);

     u_int32_t
     letoh32(u_int32_t little32);

     u_int16_t
     letoh16(u_int16_t little16);

     u_int32_t
     swap32(u_int32_t val32);

     u_int16_t
     swap16(u_int16_t val16);

DESCRIPTION
     These routines convert 16- and 32-bit quantities between different byte
     orderings.  The ``swap'' functions reverse the byte ordering of the given
     quantity, the others converts either from/to the native byte order used
     by the host to/from either little- or big-endian (a.k.a network) order.

     Apart from the swap functions, the names can be described by this form:
     {src-order}to{dst-order}{size}.  Both {src-order} and {dst-order} can
     take the following forms:




           h    Host order.
           n    Network order (big-endian).
           be   Big-endian (most significant byte first).
           le   Little-endian (least significant byte first).

     One of the specified orderings must be `h'. {size} will take these forms:

           l    Long (32-bit, used in conjunction with forms involving `n').
           s    Short (16-bit, used in conjunction with forms involving `n').
           16   16-bit.
           32   32-bit.

     The swap functions are of the form: swap{size}.

     Names involving `n' convert quantities between network byte order and
     host byte order.  The last letter (`s' or `l') is a mnemonic for the tra-
     ditional names for such quantities, short and long, respectively.  Today,
     the C concept of short and long integers need not coincide with this tra-
     ditional misunderstanding.  On machines which have a byte order which is
     the same as the network order, routines are defined as null macros.

     The functions involving either ``be'', ``le'', or ``swap'' use the num-
     bers 16 and 32 for specifying the bitwidth of the quantities they operate
     on.  Currently all supported architectures are either big- or little-en-
     dian so either the ``be'' or ``le'' variants are implemented as null
     macros.

     The routines mentioned above which have either {src-order} or {dst-order}
     set to `n' are most often used in conjunction with Internet addresses and
     ports as returned by gethostbyname(3) and getservent(3).

SEE ALSO
     gethostbyname(3),  getservent(3)

HISTORY
     The byteorder functions appeared in 4.2BSD.

BUGS
     On the vax, alpha, i386, and so far mips, bytes are handled backwards
     from most everyone else in the world.  This is not expected to be fixed
     in the near future.

OpenBSD 2.6                      June 4, 1993                                2