Very Computer

Is there a portable way for a running process to discover what
local port number has been allocated by the kernel to a socket?

I don't believe using netstat is portable since it looks up the
/proc file system which seems to differ between unices.

For the server side of a socket connection one can look at the value
in sin_port of the sockaddr structure. However for the client side,
where this is set to the server side port number to make the correct
connection to the server, it is this (remote) port number which is held
in sin_port rather than the local port number.

Any ideas?

chris

--
Chris Willing           Ph:    (61-2) 9351 1893 (| 3005)
Vislab, A28             Fax:   (61-2) 9351 1880 (| 7726)

NSW 2006 Australia      http://www.vislab.usyd.edu.au/staff/chris/

Quote:> Is there a portable way for a running process to discover what
> local port number has been allocated by the kernel to a socket?

Quote:> I don't believe using netstat is portable since it looks up the
> /proc file system which seems to differ between unices.

As for an honest-to-god answer to this problem, I'm clueless, as normal.

--
Todd Graham Lewis             Linux!                 Core Engineering

|>
|> Is there a portable way for a running process to discover what
|> local port number has been allocated by the kernel to a socket?
|>
|> I don't believe using netstat is portable since it looks up the
|> /proc file system which seems to differ between unices.
|>
|> For the server side of a socket connection one can look at the value
|> in sin_port of the sockaddr structure. However for the client side,
|> where this is set to the server side port number to make the correct
|> connection to the server, it is this (remote) port number which is held
|> in sin_port rather than the local port number.

After a bit of fiddling I can now answer my own question.

It is true that the sin_port field is initially set to the remote
port number e.g. 21 for an ftp connection. To find the local
port number it is necessary to call
        getsockname(sockNo, (struct sockaddr *)&sin, &sin_len)
after the connection is made (where sin is the name of the struct sockaddr_in).
By this time sin_port contains the local port number so,
        localPort = ntohs(sin.sin_port);
gives the desired result.

OK, I'll fiddle a bit more before I next ask a question.

chris

--
Chris Willing           Ph:    (61-2) 9351 1893 (| 3005)
Vislab, A28             Fax:   (61-2) 9351 1880 (| 7726)

NSW 2006 Australia      http://www.vislab.usyd.edu.au/staff/chris/