GETNETCONFIG(3)

💻 GETNETCONFIG(3) — the netconfig girlies' guide 💅

okay so this is a Library Functions Manual page, bestie, and it's literally all about getting your network configuration database entries. no cap, it's more useful than it sounds 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

getnetconfig, setnetconfig, endnetconfig, getnetconfigent, freenetconfigent, nc_perror, nc_sperror — get network configuration database entry 💖

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📚 LIBRARY 📚

Standard C Library (libc, -lc) — she's iconic, she's everywhere, she's linked by default 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <netconfig.h>

struct netconfig *
getnetconfig(void *handlep);

void *
setnetconfig(void);

int
endnetconfig(void *handlep);

struct netconfig *
getnetconfigent(const char *netid);

void
freenetconfigent(struct netconfig *netconfigp);

void
nc_perror(const char *msg);

char *
nc_sperror(void);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so these library routines are your backstage pass to the system network configuration database, /etc/netconfig. main character access only, iykyk 💅

• getnetconfig() — hands you a pointer to the current entry in the netconfig database, formatted as a struct netconfig. call it again and again and it keeps returning successive entries, like it's scrolling through a feed. it can search the entire netconfig file for you, no skips. when it hits the end of the file it returns NULL (sad but expected 😭). the handlep argument is the handle you got from setnetconfig().
• setnetconfig() — calling this basically "binds" to, or "rewinds", the netconfig database ✨. you must call it before your first getnetconfig(), and honestly you can call it at any other time too, no judgement. it does not need to be called before getnetconfigent() though — that one's independent, periodt. it returns a unique handle for getnetconfig() to use.
• endnetconfig() — call this when you're done processing so resources get released for reuse, very responsible of you 🫶. the handlep argument is the handle from setnetconfig(). but bestie, heads up 🙈: the last call to endnetconfig() frees all memory allocated by getnetconfig() for the struct netconfig data structure. also, you may not call endnetconfig() before setnetconfig() — that's not it.
• getnetconfigent() — returns a pointer to the netconfig structure corresponding to netid. if netid is invalid (aka it doesn't name an entry in the netconfig database), you get NULL. it's giving "no thoughts head empty" 💀
• freenetconfigent() — frees the netconfig structure pointed to by netconfigp, which you previously got from getnetconfigent(). clean up after yourself, queen 👑
• nc_perror() — prints a message to the standard error saying why any of the above routines failed. the message gets the string msg and a colon prepended to it, and a newline character is appended at the end. little formatting moment 💖
• nc_sperror() — same energy as nc_perror() but instead of sending the message to standard error, it returns a pointer to a string containing the error message. quieter, lowkey, still slays 🌈

also, side note: nc_perror() and nc_sperror() work with the NETPATH access routines defined in getnetpath(3) too. versatile icons 🔥

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⭐ RETURN VALUES ⭐

• setnetconfig() — returns a unique handle for getnetconfig() to use. if something goes wrong it returns NULL, and you can hit up nc_perror() or nc_sperror() to print the reason for the failure.
• getnetconfig() — returns a pointer to the current entry in the netconfig database, formatted as a struct netconfig. returns NULL at the end of the file, or upon failure. it's giving mysterious 💀
• endnetconfig() — returns 0 on success and -1 on failure (like, for example, if setnetconfig() wasn't called previously — we been knew 🙈).
• getnetconfigent() — on success, returns a pointer to the struct netconfig structure corresponding to netid; otherwise it returns NULL.
• nc_sperror() — returns a pointer to a buffer containing the error message string. this buffer gets overwritten on each call, so don't get attached 💀. in multithreaded applications, this buffer is implemented as thread-specific data ✨ (she's considerate like that).

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🍓 FILES 🍓

• /etc/netconfig — the whole vibe lives here

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• getnetpath(3)
• netconfig(5)

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k that's the whole page, bestie — go forth and configure your networks 💖✨🎀

this cutie came from the Debian crowd, dated April 22, 2000 — vintage but still serving 🦋