Implementations of inet_ntoa() and inet_aton() in various languages.

Funny thing about Internet addresses; they're actually rather more flexible than we give them credit for.

Don't believe me? Pull up a command line in Windows, Linux, or Mac OS and type:

ping 0x7f.1

Betcha didn't know that IP addresses were that flexible, eh? As a result, I've tried to incorporate as many features of a "real" inet_ntoa/inet_aton implementation as I easily could. In particular, addresses like "127.1" will work, since they are perfectly valid. Some of the more esoteric forms (like the 0x7f.1 example, above) may not, but I encourage forks, patches and improvements.

As to why I put this up? It was one thing when I had to develop the JavaScript ones. Once I found myself doing it in Bash, I said, "To hell with it, someone else probably faced this same issue, and I can save them some time." So hopefully I've saved you some time. Then again, the likelihood of anyone casually browsing Github stumbling across this and needing it, I freely admit, is damn near zero. So: hi, Google! inet_ntoa, inet_aton, IP address translation, etc., etc. INDEX MEEEEEEEEEEE! ;)

Oh, also worth pointing out that this provides a simple way to verify IP addresses are sane and canonical: if (inet_ntoa(inet_aton(provided_address)) != provided_address) { ....