ARES_PARSE_A_REPLY(3)

💖 ARES_PARSE_A_REPLY 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because today we're talking about ares_parse_a_reply from the Library Functions Manual — yes, that's the section 3 c-ares crew, and yes, she's iconic ✨

✨ NAME ✨

ares_parse_a_reply — parse a reply to a DNS query of type A 🅰️

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <ares.h>

int ares_parse_a_reply(const unsigned char *abuf, int alen,
                       struct hostent **host,
                       struct ares_addrttl *addrttls, int *naddrttls);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like, ares_parse_a_reply takes a response to a query of type A and parses it into a struct hostent and/or an array of struct ares_addrttls. two destinations, one function, we love a multitasker 💅

the parameters abuf and alen give the contents of the response — that's your raw bytes and how many of them there are, no cap.

the result gets stored in allocated memory, and a pointer to it gets stored into the variable pointed to by host, if host is nonnull. so if you passed NULL there, she's just not gonna write anything, periodt.

🫶 IMPORTANT: it is the caller's responsibility to free the resulting host structure using ares_free_hostent(3) when it is no longer needed. that memory is yours to clean up, bestie. don't leave her hanging, that's a leak and leaks are NOT the vibe 😭

now, if addrttls and naddrttls are both nonnull, then up to *naddrttls struct ares_addrttl records are stored in the array pointed to by addrttls, and then *naddrttls is set to the number of records so stored. it's giving "here's your stuff, and here's how much stuff you actually got" 🎀

🙈 note that the memory for these records is supplied by the caller. you bring the array, she just fills it in. that's the deal.

💀 RETURN VALUES 💀

ares_parse_a_reply can return any of the following values, and honestly each one is a whole mood:

• ARES_SUCCESS — the response was successfully parsed. 🎉 slay, we ate, everything worked.
• ARES_EBADRESP — the response was malformatted. 😭 the bytes came in looking a mess, she can't work with that.
• ARES_ENODATA — the response did not contain an answer to the query. 💀 you asked, she looked, there was nothing there. ghosted fr fr.
• ARES_ENOMEM — memory was exhausted. 🌈 out of memory, out of vibes, out of options.

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• ares_gethostbyname(3)
• ares_free_hostent(3)

go read those too, iykyk 📚✨

okay that's the whole page!! this one's from the c-ares library functions manual, and the page itself is dated 25 July 1998 — yes she's an elder icon and she's still serving 👑💖 thanks for reading, bestie, now go free your hostent 🫶🌸