Raw socket and sendto()

Okay here we go:

With raw sockets you are suppose to be able to access the hole packet. without any adding data from the kernel.
But why do then have to give the destination and port, when calling sendto().

Code:

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sendto(int sockfd, const void *msg, int len, unsigned int flags,
const struct sockaddr *to, socklen_t tolen);

/* As you can see, this call is basically the same as the call to send() with the addition
of two other pieces of information. to is a pointer to a struct sockaddr (which you'll
probably have as a struct sockaddr_in and cast it at the last minute) which contains the
destination IP address and port. tolen, an int deep-down, can simply be set to sizeof *to or
sizeof(struct sockaddr). */

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Thanks in advance!

sendto(2) is not confined to sending data on raw sockets. It is also used for UDP sockets which require a port number. While using it for raw sockets the port number need not be set.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mageshd84

sendto(2) is not confined to sending data on raw sockets. It is also used for UDP sockets which require a port number. While using it for raw sockets the port number need not be set.

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What about the ip?

Raw sockets only reduces the work done by the kernel. There is an option IP_HDRINCL for the socket, which when NOT set, the kernel will add an IP header before sending the data on the network. If the option is set then the user process can create an IP header for the data to be sent.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by matB

What about the ip?

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Look at the 5th argument of sendto(), its const struct sockaddr *to.

You pass a struct sockaddr_in to it by typecast. The struct sockaddr_in looks like this:

Code:

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struct sockaddr_in {
    short            sin_family;
    unsigned short  sin_port;
    struct in_addr  sin_addr;
    char            sin_zero[8];
};

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struct in_addr looks like this:

Code:

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struct in_addr {
    unsigned long s_addr;
};

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So to store the ip 127.0.0.1, the port 1234, and AF_INET on the struct sockaddr_in, you'd do the following:

Code:

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struct sockaddr_in self;
self.sin_family = AF_INET;
self.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("127.0.0.1"); // you can also use inet_aton()
self.sin_port = htons(1234);
memset(self.sin_zero, '\0', sizeof(self.sin_zero));

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Now, to send data to that ip, do the following:
(I'm assuming sock is already created and everything)

Code:

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char data[16] = "Hello, world!";
if(sendto(sock, data, strlen(data), 0, (struct sockaddr*)&self, sizeof(self)) == -1)
    fprintf(stderr, "sendto() failed\n");

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Edit: Imho raw-sockets aren't very useful because they increase the complexity of your code and make it more prone to vulnerabilities and errors. You should use TCP or UDP sockets, they are more convenient to use and more stable, reliable. The chance that your code is faster than the kernel's ip stack is by the way very low.