Obtaining local IP address using getaddrinfo() C function?

Question

I\'m trying to obtain my local (not the external) IP address using the getaddrinfo() function, but I saw the examples provided here, and they where too complex for my needs.

Answer 1

getaddrinfo() isn't for obtaining your local IP address - it's for looking up names and/or services to socket addresses. To obtain the local IP address(es), the function you want is getifaddrs() - here's a minimal example:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
#include <net/if.h>
#include <ifaddrs.h>
#include <errno.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    struct ifaddrs *myaddrs, *ifa;
    void *in_addr;
    char buf[64];

    if(getifaddrs(&myaddrs) != 0)
    {
        perror("getifaddrs");
        exit(1);
    }

    for (ifa = myaddrs; ifa != NULL; ifa = ifa->ifa_next)
    {
        if (ifa->ifa_addr == NULL)
            continue;
        if (!(ifa->ifa_flags & IFF_UP))
            continue;

        switch (ifa->ifa_addr->sa_family)
        {
            case AF_INET:
            {
                struct sockaddr_in *s4 = (struct sockaddr_in *)ifa->ifa_addr;
                in_addr = &s4->sin_addr;
                break;
            }

            case AF_INET6:
            {
                struct sockaddr_in6 *s6 = (struct sockaddr_in6 *)ifa->ifa_addr;
                in_addr = &s6->sin6_addr;
                break;
            }

            default:
                continue;
        }

        if (!inet_ntop(ifa->ifa_addr->sa_family, in_addr, buf, sizeof(buf)))
        {
            printf("%s: inet_ntop failed!\n", ifa->ifa_name);
        }
        else
        {
            printf("%s: %s\n", ifa->ifa_name, buf);
        }
    }

    freeifaddrs(myaddrs);
    return 0;
}

Answer 2

Pass the hostname after using gethostname(), to gethostbyname()

int gethostname(char *hostname, size_t size);