ASP(1)

💖 ASP(1) — find an host IP address by its name 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the User Manual for asp — she's a little Unix girlie from February 1997 and she still slays, no cap 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

asp — find an host IP address by its name

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

asp [-uv] [-f | [-d dir] [-e ext]] [-a addresses] [-r repetitions] [-s
send_delay] [-w wait_time] [-p port] hostname
asp -V

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so, asp finds the IP address of an Internet connected host. like, that's the whole vibe. but here's the tea 🍵 — to actually find it, you gotta tell her two things: the peer hostname (not the FQDN, bestie, the plain one), and the range of its possible IP addresses.

and those IP addresses? they can be simple-simple, like 127.0.0.1, or they can be what we call "metaip" addresses, like 127.0.0.1-20 or 127.0.0.*. the first kind is just a cute shortcut so you don't have to type a million consecutive addresses by hand, and the * kind is literally short for 127.0.0.1-254. iconic behavior tbh 💅

now, to make managing all these hostname ↔ address associations less of a nightmare, asp goes looking in a specified directory for a text file that holds the possible IP addresses of the host you're hunting for. the file's name has to be the hostname followed by an optional extension of your choice. slay, customizable 🎀

so like, for example, to find the author's dynamic IP address — obviously if I am on line — you can hand over my metaip address on standard input with this command:

echo "195.31.186.1-62
194.166.58.2-18" | asp -f atomic

orrr you can put my metaip address in a file called atomic in your ~/.asp directory, like this:

echo "195.31.186.1-62
194.166.58.2-18" > ~/.asp/atomic

and then you can simply do:

asp atomic

literally that easy, periodt ✨

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -u — Update the file /etc/hosts with the IP address of hostname, or delete the possible old entry if the address is not found. Obviously the file have to by writable by the user. 🙈
• -v — Include more verbiage to make output readable by humans. Default consists only of dotted quad IP address, which is intended for output substitution in scripts.
• -f — Force the reading of addresses from standard input instead that from the hostname's file.
• -d dir — Set the directory containing the addresses file referred by hostname to dir. Default is ~/.asp.
• -e ext — Set addresses files extension to ext. Default is no extension.
• -a addresses — Set the number of queries to send before make a pause of send_delay seconds. Default is 12 queries.
• -r repetitions — Set the number of times to try the same address. Default is 3 times.
• -s send_delay — Delay the sending of the next group of addresses send_delay seconds. Default is 2 seconds.
• -w wait_time — Wait the peer reply for wait_time seconds. Default is 5 seconds.
• -p port — Specify an alternative port number. For default the port number is obtained searching the asp entry in /etc/services.
• -V — Show version information.

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

• ASPCMD — This variable could be used to store your preferred settings. An option set in this environment variable could be overridden or toggled from command line.

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💀 BUGS 💀

UDP is an unreliable protocol, therefore there is a chance you will not find the host even if it is on line. 😭 anyway, if you are sure that the peer is on line and asp aware, you could adjust the various parameters until you get a reply. At last you will find the correct settings for your particular needs. This until the RDM communication style will be implemented under Linux.

Obviously the hostname has to be unique among the possible IP addresses: asp will hook to the first correct reply.

bestie pls note: UDP said "trust me bro" and then did not come through. that's just how she is. 🫶

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🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Stenio Brunetta <stenio@brunettaeperin.it>

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

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⭐ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ⭐

Steven N. Hirsch <shirsch@ibm.net> for v1.3 bug fix and for the verbose option. Colin Phipps <cphipps@doomworld.com> for the tmpnam security issue.

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

aspd(8).

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okay that's the whole page!! sending u so much love, this was Linux, February 1997, ASP(1) — go forth and find those hosts 💖✨🎀🦋