subnet
Subnet
Subnet is a Crystal library designed to make the use of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses simple, powerful and enjoyable. It provides a complete set of methods to handle IP addresses for any need, from simple scripting to full network design.
Subnet is written with a full OO interface, and its code is easy to read, maintain and extend. The documentation is full of examples, to let you start being productive immediately.
This document provides a brief introduction to the library and examples of typical usage. You can check out the full documentation here.
Table of Contents
Installation
-
Add the dependency to your
shard.yml:dependencies: subnet: github: watzon/subnet version: ~> 0.1.0 -
Run
shards install -
Require it in your project
require "subnet"
IPv4
The class Subnet::IPv4 is used to handle IPv4 type addresses. This, and other classes, are almost 1/1 the same as the IPAddress ruby gem which this was based off of.
Create a new IPv4 address
Creating a IPv4 address is simple
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.1")
and supports prefixes.
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.1/24")
You can also use the somewhat easier
ip = Subnet.parse("172.16.10.1/24")
which parses both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. The result from this will be of type Subnet though and will only freely have the methods that both Subnet::IPv4 and Subnet::IPv6 share in common. For now to circumvent this you can do .as(Subnet::IPv4) or just use IPv4.new.
If you don't explicitly specify the prefix (or the subnet mask), Subnet will think you're dealing with host addresses and not with networks. Therefore, the default prefix will be /32, or 255.255.255.255. For example:
# let's declare an host address
host = Subnet::IPv4.new("10.1.1.1")
puts host.to_string
# => "10.1.1.1/32"
You can also parse a UInt32 to create a new IPv4 object
ip = IPv4.parse_u32(167837953)
puts ip.to_string
# => "10.1.1.1/32"
Handling IPv4 addresses
Once created, you can obtain the attributes for an IPv4 object
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.1/24")
ip.address
# => "172.16.10.1"
ip.prefix
# => 24
If you need to retrieve the netmask in IPv4 format, you can use the IPv4#netmask method:
ip.netmask
# => "255.255.255.0"
A special attribute, IPv4#octets, is available to get the four decimal octets from the IP address:
ip.octets
# => [172, 16, 10, 1]
The shortcut method IPv4#[], provides access to a given octet at the specified index:
ip[1]
# => 16
If you need to print out the IPv4 address in a canonical form, you can use IPv4#to_string:
ip.to_string
# => "172.16.10.1/24"
IPv4#to_s is also available and prints the address without the prefix
ip.to_s
# => "172.16.10.1"
Changing netmask
You can set a new prefix (netmask) after creating an IPv4 object. For example
ip.prefix = 25
ip.to_string
# => "172.16.10.1/25"
If you need to use a netmask in IPv4 format, you can do so by using the IPv4#netmask= method
ip.netmask = "255.255.255.252"
ip.to_string
# => "172.16.10.1/30"
Working with networks, broadcasts, and addresses
Some very important topics in dealing with IP addresses are the concepts of network and broadcast, as well as the addresses included in a range.
When you specify an IPv4 address such as 172.16.10.1/24, you are actually handling two different types of information:
- The IP address itself,
172.16.10.1 - The subnet mask which indicates the network
The network number is the IP which has all zeroes in the host portion. In our example, because the prefix is 24, we identify our network number to have the last 8 (32-24) bits all zeroes. Thus, IP address 172.16.10.1/24 belongs to network 172.16.10.0/24.
This is very important because, for instance, IP 172.16.10.1/16 is very different to the previous one, belonging to the very different network 172.16.0.0/16.
Networks
With Subnet it's very easy to calculate the network for an IP address
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.1/24")
net = ip.network
# => #<Subnet::IPv4:0xb7a5ab24 @octets=[172, 16, 10, 0],
@prefix=24,
@address="172.16.10.0">
net.to_string
# => "172.16.10.0/24"
The method IPv4#network creates a new IPv4 object from the network number, calculated after the original object. I want to outline here that the network address is a perfectly legitimate IPv4 address, which just happen to have all zeroes in the host portion.
You can use method IPv4#network? to check whether an IP address is a network or not
ip1 = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.1/24")
ip2 = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.4/30")
ip1.network?
# => false
ip2.network?
# => true
Broadcast
The broadcast address is the oposite of the network number: where the network number has all zeroes in the host portion, the broadcast address has all one's. For example, the ip 172.16.10.1/24 has the broadcast 172.16.10.255/24, where the ip 172.16.10.1/16 has the broadcast 172.16.255.255/16.
The method IPv4#broadcast has the same behavior as its #network counterpart: it creates a new IPv4 object to handle the broadcast address
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.1/24")
bcast = ip.broadcast
# => #<Subnet::IPv4:0xb7a406fc @octets=[172, 16, 10, 255],
@prefix=24,
@address="172.16.10.255">
bcast.to_string
# => "172.16.10.255/24"
Addresses, ranges, and iterators
Class IPv4 includes the Enumberable module, as well as having the methods succ and pred which allow it to be used with Range. This makes creating sets of addresses very easy, and very powerful.
Let's start with IPv4#each, which iterates over all addresses in a range
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.1/24")
ip.each do |addr|
puts addr
end
It is important to note that it doesn't matter if the original IP is a host IP or a network number (or a broadcast address): the #each method only considers the range that the original IP specifies.
If you only want to iterate over hosts IP, use the IPv4#each_host method
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.1/24")
ip.each_host do |host|
puts host
end
Methods IPv4#first and IPv4#last return a new object containing respectively the first and the last host address in the range
ip = Subnet:IPv4.new("172.16.10.100/24")
ip.first.to_string
# => "172.16.10.1/24"
ip.last.to_string
# => "172.16.10.254/24"
Checking if an address is loopback is easy with the IPv4#loopback? method
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("127.0.0.1")
ip.loopback?
# => true
Checking if an address is in the multicast range can be done using the IPv4#multicast? method
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("224.0.0.1/32")
ip.multicast?
# => true
The ability to generate a range also exists by using the IPv4#to() method. This allows you to create a subnet agnostic range based off a fixed amount.
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.100/24")
ip.to("172.16.10.110")
# => ["172.16.10.100", ..., "172.16.10.110"]
As mentioned previously, you can also create Crystal Ranges using the Range literal
range = Subnet.parse("192.168.0.1")..Subnet.parse("192.168.0.255")
puts range.size
# => 255
Special formats
The Subnet library provides a complete set of methods to access an IPv4 object in special formats such as binary, hexidecimal, 32 bit unsigned int, and a raw data string.
Let's check out the following IPv4 for example
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.1/24")
ip.address
# => "172.16.10.1"
The first thing to highlight here is that all these conversion methods only take into consideration the address portion of an IPv4 object and not the prefix (netmask).
So, to express the address in binary format, use the IPv4#bits method
ip.bits
# => "10101100000100000000101000000001"
To calculate the 32 bits unsigned int format of the ip address, use the IPv4#to_u32 method
ip.to_u32
# => 2886732289
This method is the equivalent of the Unix call pton(), expressing an IP address in the so called network byte order notation.
To maintain compatibility with the Ruby library the IPv4#data was included. Apparently it's useful for transmitting data over a network socket
ip.data
# => "\254\020\n\001
You can also transform IPv4 addresses into a format which is suitable to use in IPv4-IPv6 mapped addresses
ip.to_ipv6
# => "ac10:0a01"
Finally, much like IPv4#to_ipv6 you can use the IPv4#hexstring method to return a non-semicolon delineated string (useful with pcap/byte level usage)
ip.hexstring
# => "ac100a01"
Classful networks
Subnet allows you to create and manipulate objects using the old and deprecated (but apparently still popular) classful networks concept.
Classful networks and addresses don't have a prefix: their subnet mask is univocally identified by their address, and therefore divided in classes. As per RFC 791, these classes are:
- Class A, from 0.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255
- Class B, from 128.0.0.0 to 191.255.255.255
- Class C, from 192.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255
Since classful networks here are only considered to calculate the default prefix number, classes D and E are not considered.
To create a classful IP and prefix from an IP address, use the IPv4::parse_classful method
# classful ip
ip = Subnet::IPv4::parse_classful("10.1.1.1")
ip.prefix
# => 8
The method automatically creates a new IPv4 object and assigned it the correct prefix.
You can easily check which CLASSFUL network an IPv4 object belongs to
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("10.0.0.1/24")
ip.a?
# => true
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.1/24")
ip.b?
# => true
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("192.168.1.1/30")
ip.c?
# => true
Remember that these methods are only checking the address portion of an IP, and are independent from its prefix, as classful networks have no concept of prefix.
For more information on CLASSFUL networks visit the Wikipedia page.
Network design with Subnet
Subnet includes several useful methods to manipulate IPv4 and IPv6 networks and do some basic network design.
Subnetting
The process of subnetting is the division of a network into smaller (in terms of hosts capacity) networks, called subnets, so that they all share a common root, which is the starting network.
For example, if you have network 172.16.10.0/24, we can subnet it into 4 smaller subnets. The new prefix will be /26, because 4 is 2^2 and therefore we add 2 bits to the network prefix (24+2=26).
Subnetting is easy with Subnet. You actually have two options:
IPv4#subnet: specify a new prefixIPv4#split: tell Subnet how many subnets you want to create
Let's examine IPv4#subnet first. Say you have network 172.16.10.0/24 and you want to subnet it into /26 networks. With Subnet it's extremely simple
network = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.0/24")
subnets = network.subnet(26)
subnets.map(&.to_string)
# => ["172.16.10.0/26",
"172.16.10.64/26",
"172.16.10.128/26",
"172.16.10.192/26"]
As you can see, an Array has been created, containing 4 new IPv4 objects representing the new subnets.
Another way to create subnets is to tell Subnet how many subnets you'd like to have, and letting the library calculate the new prefix for you.
Let's see how it works, using IPv4#split method. Say you want 4 new subnets
network = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.0/24")
subnets = network.split(4)
subnets.map(&.to_string)
# => ["172.16.10.0/26",
"172.16.10.64/26",
"172.16.10.128/26",
"172.16.10.192/26"]
Hey, that's the same result as before! This actually makes sense, as the two operations are complementary. When you use IPv4#subnet with the new prefix, Subnet will always create a number of subnets that is a power of two. This is equivalent to use IPv4#split with a power of 2.
Where IPv4#split really shines is with the so called uneven subnetting. You are not limited to splitting a network into a power-of-two number of subnets: Subnet lets you create any number of subnets, and it will try to organize the new created network in the best possible way, making an efficient allocation of the space.
An example here is worth a thousand words. Let's use the same network as the previous examples
network = Subnet::IPv4.parse("172.16.10.0/24")
How do we split this network into 3 subnets? Very easy
subnets = network.split(3)
subnets.map(&.to_string)
# => ["172.16.10.0/26",
"172.16.10.64/26",
"172.16.10.128/25"]
As you can see, Subnet tried to perform an efficient allocation by filling up all the address space from the original network. There is no point in splitting a network into 3 subnets like 172.16.10.0/26, 172.16.10.64/26 and 172.16.10.128/26, as you would end up having 172.16.10.192/26 wasted.
We can go even further and split into 11 subnets
subnets = network.split(11)
subnets.map(&.to_string)
# => ["172.16.10.0/28", "172.16.10.16/28", "172.16.10.32/28",
"172.16.10.48/28", "172.16.10.64/28", "172.16.10.80/28",
"172.16.10.96/28", "172.16.10.112/28", "172.16.10.128/27",
"172.16.10.160/27", "172.16.10.192/26"]
As you can see, most of the networks are /28, with a few /27 and one /26 to fill up the remaining space.
Summarization
Summarization (or aggregation) is the process when two or more networks are taken together to check if a supernet, including all and only these networks, exists. If it exists then this supernet is called the summarized (or aggregated) network. It is very important to understand that summarization can only occur if there are no holes in the aggregated network, or, in other words, if the given networks fills completely the address space of the supernet. So the two rules are
- The aggregate network must contain all the IP addresses of the original networks
- The aggregate network must contain only the IP addresses of the original networks
A few examples will help clarify the above. Let's consider for instance the following two networks
ip1 = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.0/24")
ip2 = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.11.0/24")
These two networks can be expressed using only one IP address network if we change the prefix. Let Crystal do the work
Subnet::IPv4::summarize(ip1, ip2).map(&.to_string)
# => "172.16.10.0/23"
We note how the network 172.16.10.0/23 includes all the addresses specified in the above networks, and (more importantly) includes ONLY those addresses.
If we summarized ip1 and ip2 with the following network
"172.16.0.0/16"
we would have satisfied rule #1 above, but not rule #2. So
"172.16.0.0/16"
is not an aggregate network for ip1 and ip2.
If it's not possible to compute a single aggregated network for all the original networks, the method returns an array with all the aggregate networks found. For example, the following four networks can be aggregated in a single /22
ip1 = Subnet::IPv4.new("10.0.0.1/24")
ip2 = Subnet::IPv4.new("10.0.1.1/24")
ip3 = Subnet::IPv4.new("10.0.2.1/24")
ip4 = Subnet::IPv4.new("10.0.3.1/24")
Subnet::IPv4::summarize(ip1, ip2, ip3, ip4).map(&.to_string)
# => ["10.0.0.0/22"]
But the following networks can't be summarized in a single network:
ip1 = Subnet::IPv4.new("10.0.1.1/24")
ip2 = Subnet::IPv4.new("10.0.2.1/24")
ip3 = Subnet::IPv4.new("10.0.3.1/24")
ip4 = Subnet::IPv4.new("10.0.4.1/24")
Subnet::IPv4::summarize(ip1, ip2, ip3, ip4).map(&.to_string)
# => ["10.0.1.0/24", "10.0.2.0/23", "10.0.4.0/24"]
In this case, the two summarizables networks have been aggregated into a single /23, while the other two networks have been left untouched.
Supernetting
Supernetting is a different operation than aggregation, as it only works on a single network and returns a new single IPv4 object, representing the supernet.
Supernetting is similar to subnetting, except that you getting as a result a network with a smaller prefix (bigger host space). For example, given the network
ip = Subnet::IPv4.new("172.16.10.0/24")
you can supernet it with a new /23 prefix
ip.supernet(23).to_string
# => "172.16.10.0/23"
However if you supernet it with a /22 prefix, the network address will change
ip.supernet(22).to_string
# => "172.16.8.0/22"
This is because 172.16.10.0/22 is not a network anymore, but a host address.
IPv6
IPv6 support in Subnet is still being tested and won't be super efficient until Crystal fully supports UInt128. The current implementation uses BigInt to handle math operations which may not be very efficient, but is necessary.
That being said, Subnet fully supports IPv6 and allows you to perform an array of complex operations with IPv6 addresses.
IPv6 addresses
IPv6 addresses are 128 bits long (hence the need for UInt128), in contrast with IPv4 addresses which are only 32 bits long. An IPv6 address is generally written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, each group representing 16 bits or two octet. For example, the following is a valid IPv6 address
2001:0db8:0000:0000:0008:0800:200c:417a
Letters in an IPv6 address are usually written lowercase, as per the RFC. You can create a new IPv6 object using uppercase letters, but they will be converted
Compression
Since IPv6 addresses are long (32 characters, not including colons), there are compression standards you can use to shorten the addresses:
- Leading zeroes: all the leading zeroes within a group can be omitted: “0008” would become “8”.
- A string of consecutive zeroes can be replaced by the string “::”. This can be only applied once.
Using compression, the IPv6 address written above can be shorten into the following, equivalent, address
2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a
This shorter version is often used and is perfectly valid.
Network Mask
As we used to do with IPv4 addresses, an IPv6 address can be written using the prefix notation to specify the subnet mask
2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a/64
The /64 part means that the first 64 bits of the address are representing the network portion, and the last 64 bits are the host portion.
Using Subnet with IPv6 addresses
All the IPv6 representations we've just seen are perfectly fine when you want to create a new IPv6 address
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6.new("2001:0db8:0000:0000:0008:0800:200C:417A")
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6.new("2001:db8:0:0:8:800:200C:417A")
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6.new("2001:db8:8:800:200C:417A")
All three return the same IPv6 object. The default subnet mask for an IPv6 is 128, as IPv6 addresses don't have classes like IPv4 addresses. If you want a different mask, you can go ahead and include it explicitly
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6.new("2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a/64")
Access the address portion and the prefix by using their respective methods
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6.parse("2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a/64")
ip6.address
# => "2001:0db8:0000:0000:0008:0800:200c:417a"
ip6.prefix
# => 64
A compressed version of the IPv6 address can be obtained with the IPv6#compressed method
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6.new("2001:0db8:0000:0000:0008:200c:417a:00ab/64")
ip6.compressed
# => "2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a"
Handling IPv6 addresses
Accessing the groups that form an IPv6 address is very easy with the IPv6#groups method
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6.new("2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a/64")
ip6.groups
# => [8193, 3512, 0, 0, 8, 2048, 8204, 16762]
As with IPv4 addresses, each individual group can be accessed using the IPv6#[] shortcut method
ip6[0]
# => 8193
ip6[1]
# => 3512
ip6[2]
# => 0
ip6[3]
# => 0
Note that each 16 bits group is expressed in its decimal form. You can also obtain the groups into hexadecimal format using the IPv6#hex_groups method
ip6.hex_groups
# => ["2001", "0db8", "0000", "0000", "0008", "0800", "200c", "417a"]
You can transform the address into it's decimal representation with IPv6#to_i. For now this returns a BigInt, but a UInt128 will be returned in the future.
ip6.to_i
# => 42540766411282592856906245548098208122
You can also get the full hexidecimal representation of the address.
ip6.hexstring
# => "20010db80000000000080800200c417a"
Like IPv4, IPv6 includes both the #to_s and #to_string methods with the former returning the address without the netmask, and the latter containing the netmask. IPv6 also includes a #to_string_uncompressed to return the full, uncompressed address
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6.new("2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a/64")
ip6.to_s
# => "2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a"
ip6.to_string
# => "2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a/96"
ip6.to_string_uncompressed
# => "2001:0db8:0000:0000:0008:0800:200c:417a/96"
Compressing and uncompressing
If you have a string representing an IPv6 address, you can easily compress it and uncompress it using the two class methods IPv6.expand and IPv6.compress.
For example, let's say you have the following uncompressed IPv6 address
ip6str = "2001:0DB8:0000:CD30:0000:0000:0000:0000"
Here is the compressed version
Subnet::IPv6.compress(ip6str)
# => "2001:db8:0:cd30::"
The other way works as well
ip6str = "2001:db8:0:cd30::"
Subnet::IPv6.expand(ip6str)
# => "2001:0DB8:0000:CD30:0000:0000:0000:0000"
These methods can be used when you don't want to create a new object just for expanding or compressing an address (although a new object is actually created internally).
Other formats
You can create a new IPv6 address from different formats than just a string representing the colon-hex groups.
For instance, if you have a data stream, you can use IPv6::parse_data, like in the following example
data = " \001\r\270\000\000\000\000\000\b\b\000 \fAz"
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6::parse_data(data)
ip6.prefix = 64
ip6.to_string
# => "2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a/64"
A new IPv6 address can also be created from an unsigned 128 bit (BigInt) integer. Once again, BigInt is being used until UInt128 is supported by the Crystal compiler.
u128 = BigInt.new("42540766411282592856906245548098208122")
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6::parse_u128(u128)
ip6.prefix = 64
ip6.to_string
# =>"2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a/64"
Finally, a new IPv6 address can be created from an hex string:
hex = "20010db80000000000080800200c417a"
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6::parse_hex(hex)
ip6.prefix = 64
ip6.to_string
# => "2001:db8::8:800:200c:417a/64"
Special IPv6 addresses
Some IPv6 have a special meaning and are expressed in a special form, quite different than an usual IPv6 address. IPAddress has built-in support for unspecified, loopback and mapped IPv6 addresses
Unspecified addresses
The address with all zero bits is called the unspecified address (corresponding to 0.0.0.0 in IPv4). It should be something like this
0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000
but, with the use of compression, it is usually written as just two colons
::
or, specifying the netmask
::/128
With Subnet, create a new unspecified IPv6 address using the Unspecified subclass
ip = Subnet::IPv6::Unspecified.new
ip.to_string
# => "::/128"
You can easily check if an IPv6 object is an unspecified address by using the IPv6#unspecified? method
ip.unspecified?
# => true
This address must never be assigned to an interface and is to be used only in software before the application has learned its host's source address appropriate for a pending connection. Routers must not forward packets with the unspecified address.
Loopback addresses
The loopback address is a unicast localhost address. If an application in a host sends packets to this address, the IPv6 stack will loop these packets back on the same virtual interface.
Loopback addresses are expressed in the following form
::1
or with its appropriate prefix
::1/128
As for the unspecified addresses, IPv6 loopbacks can be created with Subnet calling its own class
ip = Subnet::IPv6::Loopback.new
ip.to_string
# => "::1/128"
Checking if an address is loopback is easy with the IPv6#loopback? method
ip.loopback?
# => true
The IPv6 loopback address corresponds to 127.0.0.1 in IPv4.
Mapped addresses
It is usually identified as a IPv4 mapped IPv6 address, a particular IPv6 address which aids the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. The structure of the address is
::ffff:w.y.x.z
where w.x.y.z is a normal IPv4 address. For example, the following is a mapped IPv6 address
::ffff:192.168.100.1
Subnet is very powerful at handling mapped IPv6 addresses, as the IPv4 portion is stored internally as a normal IPv4 object. Let's have a look at some examples. To create a new mapped address, just use the class builder itself
ip6 = Subnet::IPv6::Mapped.new("::ffff:172.16.10.1/128")
Let's check it's really a mapped address:
ip6.mapped?
# => true
ip6.to_string
# => "::ffff:172.16.10.1/128"
Now with the #ipv4 attribute, we can easily access the IPv4 portion of the mapped IPv6 address
ip6.ipv4.address
# => "172.16.10.1"
Internally, the IPv4 address is stored as two 16 bits groups. Therefore all the usual methods for an IPv6 address are working perfectly fine
ip6.to_hex
# => "00000000000000000000ffffac100a01"
ip6.address
# => "0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:ffff:ac10:0a01"
A mapped IPv6 can also be created just by specify the address in the following format
ip6 = Subnet.parse("::172.16.10.1")
That is, two colons and the IPv4 address. However, as by RFC, the ffff group will be automatically added at the beginning
ip6.to_string
# => "::ffff:172.16.10.1/128"
making it a mapped IPv6 compatible address.
Development
Subnet should be feature complete at the moment, but if there is anything missing feel free to create an issue and open a PR. The API may change as it is currently heavily based on the Ruby implementation, so please bear with me.
Contributing
- Fork it (https://github.com/watzon/subnet/fork)
- Create your feature branch (
git checkout -b my-new-feature) - Commit your changes (
git commit -am 'Add some feature') - Push to the branch (
git push origin my-new-feature) - Create a new Pull Request
Contributors
- Chris Watson - creator and maintainer
subnet: github: watzon/subnet version: ~> 0.1.0
