IP_PKTINFO socket option
The IP_PKTINFO socket option allows an application to enable or disable the return of packet information by the LPFN_WSARECVMSG (WSARecvMsg) function on an IPv4 socket..
To query the status of this socket option, call the getsockopt function. To set this option, call the setsockopt function with the following parameters.
Socket option value
The constant that represents this socket option is 19.
Syntax
int getsockopt(
(SOCKET) s, // descriptor identifying a socket
(int) IPPROTO_IP, // level
(int) IP_PKTINFO, // optname
(char *) optval, // output buffer,
(int) optlen, // size of output buffer
);
int setsockopt(
(SOCKET) s, // descriptor identifying a socket
(int) IPPROTO_IP, // level
(int) IP_PKTINFO, // optname
(char *) optval, // input buffer,
(int) optlen, // size of input buffer
);
Parameters
-
s [in]
-
A descriptor identifying the socket.
-
level [in]
-
The level at which the option is defined. Use IPPROTO_IP for this operation.
-
optname [in]
-
The socket option for which to get or set the value. Use IP_PKTINFO for this operation.
-
optval [out]
-
A pointer to the buffer containing the value for the option to set. This parameter should point to buffer equal to or larger than the size of a DWORD value.
This value is treated as a boolean value with 0 used to indicate FALSE (disabled) and a nonzero value to indicate TRUE (enabled).
-
optlen [in, out]
-
A pointer to the size, in bytes, of the optval buffer. This size must be equal to or larger than the size of a DWORD value.
Return value
If the operation completes successfully, the getsockopt or setsockopt function returns zero.
If the operation fails, a value of SOCKET_ERROR is returned and a specific error code can be retrieved by calling WSAGetLastError.
| Error code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| A successful WSAStartup call must occur before using this function. |
|
| The network subsystem has failed. |
|
| One of the optval or the optlen parameters point to memory that is not in a valid part of the user address space. This error is also returned if the value pointed to by the optlen parameter is less than the size of a DWORD value. |
|
| A blocking Windows Sockets 1.1 call is in progress, or the service provider is still processing a callback function. |
|
| An invalid argument was supplied. This error is returned if the level parameter is unknown or invalid. On Windows Vista and later, this error is also returned if the socket was in a transitional state. |
|
| The option is unknown or unsupported by the indicated protocol family. This error is returned if the type parameter for the socket descriptor passed in the s parameter was not SOCK_DGRAM or SOCK_RAW. |
|
| The descriptor is not a socket. |
Remarks
The getsockopt function called with the IP_PKTINFO socket option allows an application to determine if packet information is to be returned by the LPFN_WSARECVMSG (WSARecvMsg)function for an IPv4 socket.
The setsockopt function called with the IP_PKTINFO socket option allows an application to enable or disable the return of packet information by the LPFN_WSARECVMSG (WSARecvMsg) function. The IP_PKTINFO option for a socket is disabled (set to FALSE) by default.
When this socket option is enabled on an IPv4 socket of type SOCK_DGRAM or SOCK_RAW, the LPFN_WSARECVMSG (WSARecvMsg) function returns packet information in the WSAMSG structure pointed to by the lpMsg parameter. One of the control data objects in the returned WSAMSG structure will contain an in_pktinfo structure used to store received packet address information.
For datagrams received by the LPFN_WSARECVMSG (WSARecvMsg) function over IPv4, the Control member of the WSAMSG structure received will contain a WSABUF structure that contains a WSACMSGHDR structure. The cmsg_level member of this WSACMSGHDR structure would contain IPPROTO_IP, the cmsg_type member of this structure would contain IP_PKTINFO, and the cmsg_data member would contain an in_pktinfo structure used to store received IPv4 packet address information. The IPv4 address in the in_pktinfo structure is the IPv4 address from which the packet was received.
For a dual-stack datagram socket, if an application requires the LPFN_WSARECVMSG (WSARecvMsg) function to return packet information in a WSAMSG structure for datagrams received over IPv4, then IP_PKTINFO socket option must be set to true on the socket. If only the IPV6_PKTINFO option is set to true on the socket, packet information will be provided for datagrams received over IPv6 but may not be provided for datagrams received over IPv4.
If an application tries to set the IP_PKTINFO socket option on a dual-stack datagram socket and IPv4 is disabled on the system, then the setsockopt function will fail and WSAGetLastError will return with an error of WSAEINVAL. This same error is also returned by the setsockopt function as a result of other errors. If an application tries to set an IPPROTO_IP level socket option on a dual-stack socket and it fails with WSAEINVAL, then the application should determine if IPv4 is disabled on the local computer. One method that can be used to detect if IPv4 is enabled or disabled is to call the socket function with the af parameter set to AF_INET to try and create an IPv4 socket. If the socket function fails and WSAGetLastError returns an error of WSAEAFNOSUPPORT, then it means IPv4 is not enabled. In this case, a setsockopt function failure when attempting to set the IP_PKTINFO socket option can be ignored by the application. Otherwise a failure when attempting to set the IP_PKTINFO socket option should be treated as an unexpected error.
Note that the Ws2ipdef.h header file is automatically included in Ws2tcpip.h, and should never be used directly.
Requirements
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum supported client |
Windows XP [desktop apps only] |
| Minimum supported server |
Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps only] |
| Header |
|
See also