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c++linuxioctl

How to check if interface is up


Title pretty much says it all. If I run ifconfig, I get this:

eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
    inet -snip-  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast -snip-
    ...

Using this, I can know if it's up or not (<UP,...), but I want to be able to do this in C (or C++, if there is a simpler solution there) without relying on parsing external processes.


Here is what I've got so far (doesn't work):

bool is_interface_online(std::string interface) {
    struct ifreq ifr;
    int sock = socket(PF_INET6, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_IP);
    memset(&ifr, 0, sizeof(ifr));
    strcpy(ifr.ifr_name, interface.c_str());
    if (ioctl(sock, SIOCGIFFLAGS, &ifr) < 0) {
            perror("SIOCGIFFLAGS");
    }
    close(sock);
    return !!(ifr.ifr_flags | IFF_UP);
}

Can anyone point me in the correct direction for this?


Solution

  • Answer was simple: I used the bitwise OR (|) operator instead of the AND (&) operator. Fixed code is:

    bool is_interface_online(std::string interface) {
        struct ifreq ifr;
        int sock = socket(PF_INET6, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_IP);
        memset(&ifr, 0, sizeof(ifr));
        strcpy(ifr.ifr_name, interface.c_str());
        if (ioctl(sock, SIOCGIFFLAGS, &ifr) < 0) {
                perror("SIOCGIFFLAGS");
        }
        close(sock);
        return !!(ifr.ifr_flags & IFF_UP);
    }