GETHOSTENT(3P)

🦋 GETHOSTENT(3P) — the POSIX Programmer's Manual page, bestie edition 🦋

okay so real quick — this whole thing lives in the POSIX Programmer's Manual (that's the manual name, iykyk), and it's page GETHOSTENT(3P) of it. it's giving ✨ standard, it's giving ✨ portable, and I'm about to explain all of it like we're texting at 2am.

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🌸 PROLOG 🌸

okay bestie, before literally anything else, hear me out:

this manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. no cap.

but also — and this is the part that matters — the Linux implementation of this interface may differ. like, consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior. or, plot twist, the interface may not be implemented on Linux <em>at all</em> 💀.

so yeah. vibe check: read the Linux page too. don't just trust this one and then come crying to me. 🙈

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💖 NAME 💖

gethostent — network host database functions 🫶

(that's it. that's the name. short, iconic, does exactly what it says on the tin.)

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

here's the whole thing, copy-paste-able, character for character:

#include <netdb.h>

struct hostent *gethostent(void);

see that? that's the entire signature. no arguments. zero. a whole function with no parameters, and honestly? main character energy 👑.

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

so like... this page doesn't really describe anything itself. it just points you somewhere else:

Refer to endhostent().

that's the whole description. fr fr. it's giving "I'm not gonna explain, go ask my friend endhostent()" 💅 and honestly, valid. go read that one, it's got the actual deets.

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🎀 COPYRIGHT 🎀

okay legal moment, but make it cute, because we <em>do</em> respect the paperwork around here:

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.

and here's the important bit, so pay attention 👀 — in the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. so like, if this page and the Standard are beefing, the Standard wins. periodt. 🔥

the original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

also, any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. (not me. not the Standard. the <em>conversion</em>. the pipeline did it. 😭) to report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🌟

this masterpiece dropped courtesy of IEEE/The Open Group, dated 2017, and it's page GETHOSTENT(3P) of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. go drink some water, then go read endhostent() like I told you. mwah 💖🦋🎀