ipnodes(4)

NAME
     ipnodes - local file that associates names of nodes with IPv6 addresses.

DESCRIPTION
     The /etc/ipnodes is a local database that associates the names of nodes
     with their IPv6 addresses.  The ipnodes files can be used in conjuction
     with, or instead of, other ipnodes databases, including the Domain Name
     System (DNS).  Programs use library interfaces to access information in
     the ipnodes file.

     The ipnodes files has one entry for each IPv6 address of each node.  If a
     node has more than one IPv6 address, it will have one entry for each, on
     consecutive lines.  The format of each line is:

     IPv6-address official-node-name nicknames...

     Items are separated by any number of space and/or tab characters.  The
     first item on a line is the node's IPv6 address. The second entry is the
     node's official name.  Subsequent entries on the same line are alternate
     names for the same machine, or nicknames.  Nicknames are optional.

     For a node with more than one IPv6 address, consecutive entries for these
     addresses may contain the same or different nicknames.  Different
     nicknames are useful for assigning distinct names to different addresses.

     A call to getaddrinfo(3N) returns an addrinfo structure for every ipv6
     address from each line containing a matching official name or nickname.

     A '#' indicates the beginning of a comment; characters up to the end of
     such a line are not interpreted by routines that search the file.

     IPv6 addresses are written in a way as interpreted using the inet_pton()
     routine.  See inet(3N).

EXAMPLES
     A typical line from the ipnodes file.

     3ffe:c00:8003:110:a00:69ff:fe05:6787    iris

FILES
     /etc/ipnodes

SEE ALSO
     getaddrinfo(3), getnameinfo(3), getipnodebyname(3), nsswitch.conf(4),
     resolv.conf(4), hosts(4).