337 lines
11 KiB
ReStructuredText
337 lines
11 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _ipaddress-howto:
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***************************************
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An Introduction to the ipaddress module
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***************************************
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:author: Peter Moody
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:author: Nick Coghlan
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.. topic:: Overview
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This document aims to provide a gentle introduction to the
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:mod:`ipaddress` module. It is aimed primarily at users that aren't
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already familiar with IP networking terminology, but may also be useful
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to network engineers wanting an overview of how :mod:`ipaddress`
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represents IP network addressing concepts.
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Creating Address/Network/Interface objects
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==========================================
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Since :mod:`ipaddress` is a module for inspecting and manipulating IP address,
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the first thing you'll want to do is create some objects. You can use
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:mod:`ipaddress` to create objects from strings and integers.
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A Note on IP Versions
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---------------------
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For readers that aren't particularly familiar with IP addressing, it's
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important to know that the Internet Protocol is currently in the process
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of moving from version 4 of the protocol to version 6. This transition is
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occurring largely because version 4 of the protocol doesn't provide enough
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addresses to handle the needs of the whole world, especially given the
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increasing number of devices with direct connections to the internet.
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Explaining the details of the differences between the two versions of the
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protocol is beyond the scope of this introduction, but readers need to at
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least be aware that these two versions exist, and it will sometimes be
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necessary to force the use of one version or the other.
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IP Host Addresses
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-----------------
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Addresses, often referred to as "host addresses" are the most basic unit
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when working with IP addressing. The simplest way to create addresses is
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to use the :func:`ipaddress.ip_address` factory function, which automatically
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determines whether to create an IPv4 or IPv6 address based on the passed in
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value::
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>>> ipaddress.ip_address('192.0.2.1')
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IPv4Address('192.0.2.1')
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>>> ipaddress.ip_address('2001:DB8::1')
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IPv6Address('2001:db8::1')
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Addresses can also be created directly from integers. Values that will
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fit within 32 bits are assumed to be IPv4 addresses::
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>>> ipaddress.ip_address(3221225985)
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IPv4Address('192.0.2.1')
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>>> ipaddress.ip_address(42540766411282592856903984951653826561)
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IPv6Address('2001:db8::1')
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To force the use of IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, the relevant classes can be
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invoked directly. This is particularly useful to force creation of IPv6
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addresses for small integers::
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>>> ipaddress.ip_address(1)
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IPv4Address('0.0.0.1')
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>>> ipaddress.IPv4Address(1)
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IPv4Address('0.0.0.1')
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>>> ipaddress.IPv6Address(1)
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IPv6Address('::1')
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Defining Networks
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-----------------
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Host addresses are usually grouped together into IP networks, so
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:mod:`ipaddress` provides a way to create, inspect and manipulate network
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definitions. IP network objects are constructed from strings that define the
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range of host addresses that are part of that network. The simplest form
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for that information is a "network address/network prefix" pair, where the
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prefix defines the number of leading bits that are compared to determine
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whether or not an address is part of the network and the network address
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defines the expected value of those bits.
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As for addresses, a factory function is provided that determines the correct
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IP version automatically::
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>>> ipaddress.ip_network('192.0.2.0/24')
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IPv4Network('192.0.2.0/24')
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>>> ipaddress.ip_network('2001:db8::0/96')
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IPv6Network('2001:db8::/96')
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Network objects cannot have any host bits set. The practical effect of this
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is that ``192.0.2.1/24`` does not describe a network. Such definitions are
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referred to as interface objects since the ip-on-a-network notation is
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commonly used to describe network interfaces of a computer on a given network
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and are described further in the next section.
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By default, attempting to create a network object with host bits set will
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result in :exc:`ValueError` being raised. To request that the
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additional bits instead be coerced to zero, the flag ``strict=False`` can
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be passed to the constructor::
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>>> ipaddress.ip_network('192.0.2.1/24')
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Traceback (most recent call last):
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...
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ValueError: 192.0.2.1/24 has host bits set
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>>> ipaddress.ip_network('192.0.2.1/24', strict=False)
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IPv4Network('192.0.2.0/24')
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While the string form offers significantly more flexibility, networks can
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also be defined with integers, just like host addresses. In this case, the
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network is considered to contain only the single address identified by the
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integer, so the network prefix includes the entire network address::
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>>> ipaddress.ip_network(3221225984)
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IPv4Network('192.0.2.0/32')
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>>> ipaddress.ip_network(42540766411282592856903984951653826560)
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IPv6Network('2001:db8::/128')
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As with addresses, creation of a particular kind of network can be forced
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by calling the class constructor directly instead of using the factory
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function.
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Host Interfaces
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---------------
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As mentioned just above, if you need to describe an address on a particular
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network, neither the address nor the network classes are sufficient.
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Notation like ``192.0.2.1/24`` is commonly used by network engineers and the
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people who write tools for firewalls and routers as shorthand for "the host
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``192.0.2.1`` on the network ``192.0.2.0/24``", Accordingly, :mod:`ipaddress`
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provides a set of hybrid classes that associate an address with a particular
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network. The interface for creation is identical to that for defining network
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objects, except that the address portion isn't constrained to being a network
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address.
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>>> ipaddress.ip_interface('192.0.2.1/24')
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IPv4Interface('192.0.2.1/24')
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>>> ipaddress.ip_network('2001:db8::1/96')
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IPv6Interface('2001:db8::1/96')
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Integer inputs are accepted (as with networks), and use of a particular IP
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version can be forced by calling the relevant constructor directly.
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Inspecting Address/Network/Interface Objects
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============================================
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You've gone to the trouble of creating an IPv(4|6)(Address|Network|Interface)
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object, so you probably want to get information about it. :mod:`ipaddress`
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tries to make doing this easy and intuitive.
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Extracting the IP version::
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>>> addr4 = ipaddress.ip_address('192.0.2.1')
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>>> addr6 = ipaddress.ip_address('2001:db8::1')
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>>> addr6.version
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6
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>>> addr4.version
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4
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Obtaining the network from an interface::
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>>> host4 = ipaddress.ip_interface('192.0.2.1/24')
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>>> host4.network
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IPv4Network('192.0.2.0/24')
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>>> host6 = ipaddress.ip_interface('2001:db8::1/96')
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>>> host6.network
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IPv6Network('2001:db8::/96')
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Finding out how many individual addresses are in a network::
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>>> net4 = ipaddress.ip_network('192.0.2.0/24')
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>>> net4.numhosts
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256
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>>> net6 = ipaddress.ip_network('2001:db8::0/96')
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>>> net6.numhosts
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4294967296
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Iterating through the 'usable' addresses on a network::
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>>> net4 = ipaddress.ip_network('192.0.2.0/24')
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>>> for x in net4.iterhosts():
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print(x)
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192.0.2.1
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192.0.2.2
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192.0.2.3
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192.0.2.4
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<snip>
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192.0.2.252
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192.0.2.253
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192.0.2.254
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Obtaining the netmask (i.e. set bits corresponding to the network prefix) or
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the hostmask (any bits that are not part of the netmask):
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>>> net4 = ipaddress.ip_network('192.0.2.0/24')
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>>> net4.netmask
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IPv4Address('255.255.255.0')
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>>> net4.hostmask
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IPv4Address('0.0.0.255')
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>>> net6 = ipaddress.ip_network('2001:db8::0/96')
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>>> net6.netmask
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IPv6Address('ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::')
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>>> net6.hostmask
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IPv6Address('::ffff:ffff')
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Exploding or compressing the address::
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>>> addr6.exploded
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'2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000'
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>>> addr6.compressed
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'2001:db8::'
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>>> net6.exploded
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'2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000/96'
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>>> net6.compressed
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'2001:db8::/96'
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While IPv4 doesn't support explosion or compression, the associated objects
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still provide the relevant properties so that version neutral code can
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easily ensure the most concise or most verbose form is used for IPv6
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addresses while still correctly handling IPv4 addresses.
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Networks as lists of Addresses
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==============================
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It's sometimes useful to treat networks as lists. This means it is possible
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to index them like this::
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>>> net4[1]
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IPv4Address('192.0.2.1')
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>>> net4[-1]
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IPv4Address('192.0.2.255')
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>>> net6[1]
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IPv6Address('2001::1')
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>>> net6[-1]
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IPv6Address('2001::ffff:ffff')
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It also means that network objects lend themselves to using the list
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membership test syntax like this::
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if address in network:
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# do something
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Containment testing is done efficiently based on the network prefix::
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>>> addr4 = ipaddress.ip_address('192.0.2.1')
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>>> addr4 in ipaddress.ip_network('192.0.2.0/24')
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True
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>>> addr4 in ipaddress.ip_network('192.0.3.0/24')
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False
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Comparisons
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===========
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:mod:`ipaddress` provides some simple, hopefully intuitive ways to compare
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objects, where it makes sense::
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>>> ipaddress.ip_address('192.0.2.1') < ipaddress.ip_address('192.0.2.2')
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True
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A :exc:`TypeError` exception is raised if you try to compare objects of
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different versions or different types.
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Using IP Addresses with other modules
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=====================================
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Other modules that use IP addresses (such as :mod:`socket`) usually won't
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accept objects from this module directly. Instead, they must be coerced to
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an integer or string that the other module will accept::
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>>> addr4 = ipaddress.ip_address('192.0.2.1')
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>>> str(addr4)
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'192.0.2.1'
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>>> int(addr4)
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3221225985
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Getting more detail when instance creation fails
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================================================
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When creating address/network/interface objects using the version-agnostic
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factory functions, any errors will be reported as :exc:`ValueError` with
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a generic error message that simply says the passed in value was not
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recognised as an object of that type. The lack of a specific error is
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because it's necessary to know whether the value is *supposed* to be IPv4
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or IPv6 in order to provide more detail on why it has been rejected.
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To support use cases where it is useful to have access to this additional
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detail, the individual class constructors actually raise the
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:exc:`ValueError` subclasses :exc:`ipaddress.AddressValueError` and
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:exc:`ipaddress.NetmaskValueError` to indicate exactly which part of
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the definition failed to parse correctly.
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The error messages are significantly more detailed when using the
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class constructors directly. For example::
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>>> ipaddress.ip_address("192.168.0.256")
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Traceback (most recent call last):
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...
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ValueError: '192.168.0.256' does not appear to be an IPv4 or IPv6 address
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>>> ipaddress.IPv4Address("192.168.0.256")
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Traceback (most recent call last):
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...
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ipaddress.AddressValueError: Octet 256 (> 255) not permitted in '192.168.0.256'
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>>> ipaddress.ip_network("192.168.0.1/64")
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Traceback (most recent call last):
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...
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ValueError: '192.168.0.1/64' does not appear to be an IPv4 or IPv6 network
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>>> ipaddress.IPv4Network("192.168.0.1/64")
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Traceback (most recent call last):
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...
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ipaddress.NetmaskValueError: '64' is not a valid netmask
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However, both of the module specific exceptions have :exc:`ValueError` as their
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parent class, so if you're not concerned with the particular type of error,
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you can still write code like the following::
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try:
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network = ipaddress.IPv4Network(address)
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except ValueError:
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print('address/netmask is invalid for IPv4:', address)
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