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## java.net
Class InetAddress

    java.lang.Object
      |
      +--java.net.InetAddress

All Implemented Interfaces:
  Serializable

Direct Known Subclasses:
  Inet4Address, Inet6Address

public class InetAddress
extends Object
implements Serializable

This class represents an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

An IP address is either a 32-bit or 128-bit unsigned number used by IP, a lower-level protocol on which protocols like UDP and TCP are built. The IP address architecture is defined by RFC 790: Assigned Numbers, RFC 1918: Address Allocation for Private Internets, RFC 2365: Administratively Scoped IP Multicast, and RFC 2373: IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture. An instance of an InetAddress consists of an IP address and possibly its corresponding host name (depending on whether it is constructed with a host name or whether it has already done reverse host name resolution).

#### Address types

> unicast | An identifier for a single interface. A packet sent to a unicast address is delivered to the interface identified by that address. The Unspecified Address -- Also called anylocal or wildcard address. It must never be assigned to any node. It indicates the absence of an address. One example of its use is as the target of bind, which allows a server to accept a client connection on any interface, in case the server host has multiple interfaces. The unspecified address must not be used as the destination address of an IP packet. The Loopback Addresses -- This is the address assigned to the loopback interface. Anything sent to this IP address loops around and becomes IP input on the local host. This address is often used when testing a client.
> multicast | An identifier for a set of interfaces (typically belonging to different nodes). A packet sent to a multicast address is delivered to all interfaces identified by that address.

#### IP address scope

Link-local addresses are designed to be used for addressing on a single link for purposes such as auto-address configuration, neighbor discovery, or when no routers are present.

Site-local addresses are designed to be used for addressing inside of a site without the need for a global prefix.

Global addresses are unique across the internet.

#### Textual representation of IP addresses

The textual representation of an IP address is address family specific.

For IPv4 address format, please refer to Inet4Address#format; For IPv6 address format, please refer to Inet6Address#format.

#### Host Name Resolution

Host name-to-IP address resolution is accomplished through the use of a combination of local machine configuration information and network naming services such as the Domain Name System (DNS) and Network Information Service(NIS). The particular naming services(s) being used is by default the local machine configured one. For any host name, its corresponding IP address is returned.

Reverse name resolution means that for any IP address, the host associated with the IP address is returned.

The InetAddress class provides methods to resolve host names to their IP addresses and vise versa.

#### InetAddress Caching

The InetAddress class has a cache to store successful as well as unsuccessful host name resolutions. The positive caching is there to guard against DNS spoofing attacks; while the negative caching is used to improve performance.

By default, the result of positive host name resolutions are cached forever, because there is no general rule to decide when it is safe to remove cache entries. The result of unsuccessful host name resolution is cached for a very short period of time (10 seconds) to improve performance.

Under certain circumstances where it can be determined that DNS spoofing attacks are not possible, a Java security property can be set to a different Time-to-live (TTL) value for positive caching. Likewise, a system admin can configure a different negative caching TTL value when needed.

Two Java security properties control the TTL values used for positive and negative host name resolution caching:

> networkaddress.cache.ttl (default: -1)
>   Indicates the caching policy for successful name lookups from the name service. The value is specified as as integer to indicate the number of seconds to cache the successful lookup.

>   A value of -1 indicates "cache forever".

> networkaddress.cache.negative.ttl (default: 10)
>   Indicates the caching policy for un-successful name lookups from the name service. The value is specified as as integer to indicate the number of seconds to cache the failure for un-successful lookups.

>   A value of 0 indicates "never cache". A value of -1 indicates "cache forever".

Since:
  JDK1.0
See Also:
  `getByAddress(byte[])`, `getByAddress(java.lang.String, byte[])`, `getAllByName(java.lang.String)`, `getByName(java.lang.String)`, `getLocalHost()`, Serialized Form

Method Summary
`boolean` | `equals(Object obj)` Compares this object against the specified object.
`byte[]` | `getAddress()` Returns the raw IP address of this `InetAddress` object.
`static InetAddress[]` | `getAllByName(String host)` Given the name of a host, returns an array of its IP addresses, based on the configured name service on the system.
`static InetAddress` | `getByAddress(byte[] addr)` Returns an `InetAddress` object given the raw IP address .
`static InetAddress` | `getByAddress(String host, byte[] addr)` Create an InetAddress based on the provided host name and IP address No name service is checked for the validity of the address.
`static InetAddress` | `getByName(String host)` Determines the IP address of a host, given the host's name.
`String` | `getCanonicalHostName()` Gets the fully qualified domain name for this IP address.
`String` | `getHostAddress()` Returns the IP address string in textual presentation.
`String` | `getHostName()` Gets the host name for this IP address.
`static InetAddress` | `getLocalHost()` Returns the local host.
`int` | `hashCode()` Returns a hashcode for this IP address.
`boolean` | `isAnyLocalAddress()` Utility routine to check if the InetAddress in a wildcard address.
`boolean` | `isLinkLocalAddress()` Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an link local address.
`boolean` | `isLoopbackAddress()` Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a loopback address.
`boolean` | `isMCGlobal()` Utility routine to check if the multicast address has global scope.
`boolean` | `isMCLinkLocal()` Utility routine to check if the multicast address has link scope.
`boolean` | `isMCNodeLocal()` Utility routine to check if the multicast address has node scope.
`boolean` | `isMCOrgLocal()` Utility routine to check if the multicast address has organization scope.
`boolean` | `isMCSiteLocal()` Utility routine to check if the multicast address has site scope.
`boolean` | `isMulticastAddress()` Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an IP multicast address.
`boolean` | `isSiteLocalAddress()` Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a site local address.
`String` | `toString()` Converts this IP address to a `String`.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
`clone, finalize, getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait`

Method Detail

### isMulticastAddress

    public boolean isMulticastAddress()

  Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an IP multicast address.

  Returns:
    a `boolean` indicating if the InetAddress is an IP multicast address
  Since:
    JDK1.1

### isAnyLocalAddress

    public boolean isAnyLocalAddress()

  Utility routine to check if the InetAddress in a wildcard address.

  Returns:
    a `boolean` indicating if the Inetaddress is a wildcard address.
  Since:
    1.4

### isLoopbackAddress

    public boolean isLoopbackAddress()

  Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a loopback address.

  Returns:
    a `boolean` indicating if the InetAddress is a loopback address; or false otherwise.
  Since:
    1.4

### isLinkLocalAddress

    public boolean isLinkLocalAddress()

  Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an link local address.

  Returns:
    a `boolean` indicating if the InetAddress is a link local address; or false if address is not a link local unicast address.
  Since:
    1.4

### isSiteLocalAddress

    public boolean isSiteLocalAddress()

  Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a site local address.

  Returns:
    a `boolean` indicating if the InetAddress is a site local address; or false if address is not a site local unicast address.
  Since:
    1.4

### isMCGlobal

    public boolean isMCGlobal()

  Utility routine to check if the multicast address has global scope.

  Returns:
    a `boolean` indicating if the address has is a multicast address of global scope, false if it is not of global scope or it is not a multicast address
  Since:
    1.4

### isMCNodeLocal

    public boolean isMCNodeLocal()

  Utility routine to check if the multicast address has node scope.

  Returns:
    a `boolean` indicating if the address has is a multicast address of node-local scope, false if it is not of node-local scope or it is not a multicast address
  Since:
    1.4

### isMCLinkLocal

    public boolean isMCLinkLocal()

  Utility routine to check if the multicast address has link scope.

  Returns:
    a `boolean` indicating if the address has is a multicast address of link-local scope, false if it is not of link-local scope or it is not a multicast address
  Since:
    1.4

### isMCSiteLocal

    public boolean isMCSiteLocal()

  Utility routine to check if the multicast address has site scope.

  Returns:
    a `boolean` indicating if the address has is a multicast address of site-local scope, false if it is not of site-local scope or it is not a multicast address
  Since:
    1.4

### isMCOrgLocal

    public boolean isMCOrgLocal()

  Utility routine to check if the multicast address has organization scope.

  Returns:
    a `boolean` indicating if the address has is a multicast address of organization-local scope, false if it is not of organization-local scope or it is not a multicast address
  Since:
    1.4

### getHostName

    public String getHostName()

  Gets the host name for this IP address.

  If this InetAddress was created with a host name, this host name will be remembered and returned; otherwise, a reverse name lookup will be performed and the result will be returned based on the system configured name lookup service. If a lookup of the name service is required, call `getCanonicalHostName`.

  If there is a security manager, its `checkConnect` method is first called with the hostname and `-1` as its arguments to see if the operation is allowed. If the operation is not allowed, it will return the textual representation of the IP address.

  Returns:
    the host name for this IP address, or if the operation is not allowed by the security check, the textual representation of the IP address.
  See Also:
    `getCanonicalHostName()`, `SecurityManager.checkConnect(java.lang.String, int)`

### getCanonicalHostName

    public String getCanonicalHostName()

  Gets the fully qualified domain name for this IP address. Best effort method, meaning we may not be able to return the FQDN depending on the underlying system configuration.

  If there is a security manager, this method first calls its `checkConnect` method with the hostname and `-1` as its arguments to see if the calling code is allowed to know the hostname for this IP address, i.e., to connect to the host. If the operation is not allowed, it will return the textual representation of the IP address.

  Returns:
    the fully qualified domain name for this IP address, or if the operation is not allowed by the security check, the textual representation of the IP address.
  Since:
    1.4
  See Also:
    `SecurityManager.checkConnect(java.lang.String, int)`

### getAddress

    public byte[] getAddress()

  Returns the raw IP address of this `InetAddress` object. The result is in network byte order: the highest order byte of the address is in `getAddress()[0]`.

  Returns:
    the raw IP address of this object.

### getHostAddress

    public String getHostAddress()

  Returns the IP address string in textual presentation.

  Returns:
    the raw IP address in a string format.
  Since:
    JDK1.0.2

### hashCode

    public int hashCode()

  Returns a hashcode for this IP address.

  Overrides:
    `hashCode` in class `Object`
  Returns:
    a hash code value for this IP address.
  See Also:
    `Object.equals(java.lang.Object)`, `Hashtable`

### equals

    public boolean equals(Object obj)

  Compares this object against the specified object. The result is `true` if and only if the argument is not `null` and it represents the same IP address as this object.

  Two instances of `InetAddress` represent the same IP address if the length of the byte arrays returned by `getAddress` is the same for both, and each of the array components is the same for the byte arrays.

  Overrides:
    `equals` in class `Object`
  Parameters:
    `obj` - the object to compare against.
  Returns:
    `true` if the objects are the same; `false` otherwise.
  See Also:
    `getAddress()`

### toString

    public String toString()

  Converts this IP address to a `String`. The string returned is of the form: hostname / literal IP address. If the host name is unresolved, no reverse name service loopup is performed. The hostname part will be represented by an empty string.

  Overrides:
    `toString` in class `Object`
  Returns:
    a string representation of this IP address.

### getByAddress

    public static InetAddress getByAddress(String host,
                                           byte[] addr)
                                    throws UnknownHostException

  Create an InetAddress based on the provided host name and IP address No name service is checked for the validity of the address.

  The host name can either be a machine name, such as "`java.sun.com`", or a textual representation of its IP address.

  For `host` specified in literal IPv6 address, either the form defined in RFC 2732 or the literal IPv6 address format defined in RFC 2373 is accepted.

  If addr specifies an IPv4 address an instance of Inet4Address will be returned; otherwise, an instance of Inet6Address will be returned.

  IPv4 address byte array must be 4 bytes long and IPv6 byte array must be 16 bytes long

  Parameters:
    `host` - the specified host
    `addr` - the raw IP address in network byte order
  Returns:
    an InetAddress object created from the raw IP address.
  Throws:
    `UnknownHostException` - if IP address is of illegal length
  Since:
    1.4

### getByName

    public static InetAddress getByName(String host)
                                 throws UnknownHostException

  Determines the IP address of a host, given the host's name.

  The host name can either be a machine name, such as "`java.sun.com`", or a textual representation of its IP address. If a literal IP address is supplied, only the validity of the address format is checked.

  For `host` specified in literal IPv6 address, either the form defined in RFC 2732 or the literal IPv6 address format defined in RFC 2373 is accepted.

  Parameters:
    `host` - the specified host, or `null` for the local host.
  Returns:
    an IP address for the given host name.
  Throws:
    `UnknownHostException` - if no IP address for the `host` could be found.
    `SecurityException` - if a security manager exists and its checkConnect method doesn't allow the operation

### getAllByName

    public static InetAddress[] getAllByName(String host)
                                      throws UnknownHostException

  Given the name of a host, returns an array of its IP addresses, based on the configured name service on the system.

  The host name can either be a machine name, such as "`java.sun.com`", or a textual representation of its IP address. If a literal IP address is supplied, only the validity of the address format is checked.

  For `host` specified in literal IPv6 address, either the form defined in RFC 2732 or the literal IPv6 address format defined in RFC 2373 is accepted.

  If there is a security manager and `host` is not null and `host.length()` is not equal to zero, the security manager's `checkConnect` method is called with the hostname and `-1` as its arguments to see if the operation is allowed.

  Parameters:
    `host` - the name of the host.
  Returns:
    an array of all the IP addresses for a given host name.
  Throws:
    `UnknownHostException` - if no IP address for the `host` could be found.
    `SecurityException` - if a security manager exists and its `checkConnect` method doesn't allow the operation.
  See Also:
    `SecurityManager.checkConnect(java.lang.String, int)`

### getByAddress

    public static InetAddress getByAddress(byte[] addr)
                                    throws UnknownHostException

  Returns an `InetAddress` object given the raw IP address . The argument is in network byte order: the highest order byte of the address is in `getAddress()[0]`.

  This method doesn't block, i.e. no reverse name service lookup is performed.

  IPv4 address byte array must be 4 bytes long and IPv6 byte array must be 16 bytes long

  Parameters:
    `addr` - the raw IP address in network byte order
  Returns:
    an InetAddress object created from the raw IP address.
  Throws:
    `UnknownHostException` - if IP address is of illegal length
  Since:
    1.4

### getLocalHost

    public static InetAddress getLocalHost()
                                    throws UnknownHostException

  Returns the local host.

  If there is a security manager, its `checkConnect` method is called with the local host name and `-1` as its arguments to see if the operation is allowed. If the operation is not allowed, an InetAddress representing the loopback address is returned.

  Returns:
    the IP address of the local host.
  Throws:
    `UnknownHostException` - if no IP address for the `host` could be found.
  See Also:
    `SecurityManager.checkConnect(java.lang.String, int)`

Overview | Package | Class | Use | Tree | Deprecated | Index | Help
| JavaTM 2 Platform Std. Ed. v1.4.1
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For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java 2 SDK SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

Copyright 2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms.