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DESCRIPTION

Trailing zero fields are suppressed, and each number is printed in hexadecimal, in a format suitable for input to ns_addr(). Any fields lacking super-decimal digits will have a trailing ‘H’ appended.

Unfortunately, no universal standard exists for representing XNS addresses. An effort has been made to insure that ns_addr() be compatible with most formats in common use. It will first separate an address into 1 to 3 fields using a single delimiter chosen from period ‘.’, colon ‘:’ or pound-sign ‘#’. Each field is then examined for byte separators (colon or period). If there are byte separators, each subfield separated is taken to be a small hexadecimal number, and the entirety is taken as a network-byte-ordered quantity to be zero extended in the high-network-order bytes. Next, the field is inspected for hyphens, in which case the field is assumed to be a number in decimal notation with hyphens separating the millenia. Next, the field is assumed to be a number: It is interpreted as hexadecimal if there is a leading ‘0x’ (as in C), a trailing ‘H’ (as in Mesa), or there are any super-decimal digits present. It is interpreted as octal is there is a leading ‘0’ and there are no super-octal digits. Otherwise, it is converted as a decimal number.