The call that obtains the interface configuration is:

/*
 * Do SIOCGIFNUM ioctl to find the number of interfaces
 *
 * Allocate space for number of interfaces found
 *
 * Do SIOCGIFCONF with allocated buffer
 *
 */
if (ioctl(s, SIOCGIFNUM, (char *)&numifs) == -1) {
        numifs = MAXIFS;
}
bufsize = numifs * sizeof(struct ifreq);
reqbuf = (struct ifreq *)malloc(bufsize);
if (reqbuf == NULL) {
        fprintf(stderr, "out of memory\n");
        exit(1);
}
ifc.ifc_buf = (caddr_t)&reqbuf[0];
ifc.ifc_len = bufsize;
if (ioctl(s, SIOCGIFCONF, (char *)&ifc) == -1) {
        perror("ioctl(SIOCGIFCONF)");
        exit(1);
}
...
}

After this call, buf contains an array of ifreq structures, one for each network to which the host connects. The sort order these structures appear in is:

• Alphabetical by interface name

• Numerical by supported address families

Each structure has a set of interface flags that indicate whether the corresponding network is up or down, point-to-point or broadcast, and so on. The following example shows ioctl(2) returning the SIOCGIFFLAGS flags for an interface specified by an ifreq structure.

Example 6-15 Obtaining Interface Flags

struct ifreq *ifr;
ifr = ifc.ifc_req;
for (n = ifc.ifc_len/sizeof (struct ifreq); --n >= 0; ifr++) {
   /*
    * Be careful not to use an interface devoted to an address
    * family other than those intended.
    */
   if (ifr->ifr_addr.sa_family != AF_INET)
      continue;
   if (ioctl(s, SIOCGIFFLAGS, (char *) ifr) < 0) {
      ...
   }
   /* Skip boring cases */
   if ((ifr->ifr_flags & IFF_UP) == 0 ||
      (ifr->ifr_flags & IFF_LOOPBACK) ||
      (ifr->ifr_flags & (IFF_BROADCAST | IFF_POINTOPOINT)) == 0)
      continue;
}

The following example uses the SIOGGIFBRDADDR ioctl(2) command to obtain the broadcast address of an interface.

Example 6-16 Broadcast Address of an Interface

if (ioctl(s, SIOCGIFBRDADDR, (char *) ifr) < 0) {
		...
}
memcpy((char *) &dst, (char *) &ifr->ifr_broadaddr,
		sizeof ifr->ifr_broadaddr);

You can also use SIOGGIFBRDADDR ioctl(2) to get the destination address of a point-to-point interface.

After the interface broadcast address is obtained, transmit the broadcast datagram with sendto(3SOCKET):

sendto(s, buf, buflen, 0, (struct sockaddr *)&dst, sizeof dst);

Use one sendto(3SOCKET) for each interface to which the host is connected that supports the broadcast or point-to-point addressing.

Using Multicast

IP multicasting is supported only on AF_INET6 and AF_INET sockets of type SOCK_DGRAM and SOCK_RAW, and only on subnetworks for which the interface driver supports multicasting.

Sending IPv4 Multicast Datagrams

To send a multicast datagram, specify an IP multicast address in the range 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255 as the destination address in a sendto(3SOCKET) call.

By default, IP multicast datagrams are sent with a time-to-live (TTL) of 1, which prevents them from being forwarded beyond a single subnetwork. The socket option IP_MULTICAST_TTL allows the TTL for subsequent multicast datagrams to be set to any value from 0 to 255, to control the scope of the multicasts.

u_char ttl; setsockopt(sock, IPPROTO_IP, IP_MULTICAST_TTL, &ttl,sizeof(ttl))

Multicast datagrams with a TTL of 0 are not transmitted on any subnet, but can be delivered locally if the sending host belongs to the destination group and if multicast loopback has not been disabled on the sending socket (see below). Multicast datagrams with a TTL greater than one can be delivered to more than one subnet if one or more multicast routers are attached to the first-hop subnet. To provide meaningful scope control, the multicast routers support the notion of TTL thresholds. These thresholds prevent datagrams with less than a certain TTL from traversing certain subnets. The thresholds enforce the conventions for multicast datagrams with initial TTL values as follows:

Sites and regions are not strictly defined and sites can be subdivided into smaller administrative units as a local matter.

An application can choose an initial TTL other than the ones listed above. For example, an application might perform an expanding-ring search for a network resource by sending a multicast query, first with a TTL of 0 and then with larger and larger TTLs until a reply is received using for example the TTL sequence 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32.

The multicast router does not forward any multicast datagram with a destination address between 224.0.0.0 and 224.0.0.255 inclusive, regardless of its TTL. This range of addresses is reserved for the use of routing protocols and other low-level topology discovery or maintenance protocols, such as gateway discovery and group membership reporting.

Each multicast transmission is sent from a single network interface, even if the host has more than one multicast-capable interface. If the host is also a multicast router and the TTL is greater than 1, a multicast can be forwarded to interfaces other than the originating interface. A socket option is available to override the default for subsequent transmissions from a given socket:

    struct in_addr addr;
    setsockopt(sock, IPPROTO_IP, IP_MULTICAST_IF, &addr, sizeof(addr))

where addr is the local IP address of the desired outgoing interface. Revert to the default interface by specifying the address INADDR_ANY. The local IP address of an interface is obtained with the SIOCGIFCONF ioctl. To determine if an interface supports multicasting, fetch the interface flags with the SIOCGIFFLAGS ioctl and test if the IFF_MULTICAST flag is set. This option is intended primarily for multicast routers and other system services specifically concerned with Internet topology.

If a multicast datagram is sent to a group to which the sending host itself belongs, a copy of the datagram is, by default, looped back by the IP layer for local delivery. Another socket option gives the sender explicit control over whether subsequent datagrams are looped back:

    u_char loop;
    setsockopt(sock, IPPROTO_IP, IP_MULTICAST_LOOP, &loop, sizeof(loop))  

where loop is 0 to disable loopback and 1 to enable loopback. This option provides a performance benefit for applications that have only one instance on a single host, such as a router or a mail daemon, by eliminating the overhead of receiving their own transmissions. Applications that can have more than one instance on a single host, such as a conferencing program, or for which the sender does not belong to the destination group, such as a time querying program, should not use this option.

If the sending host belongs to the destination group on another interface, a multicast datagram sent with an initial TTL greater than 1 can be delivered to the sending host on the other interface. The loopback control option has no effect on such delivery.