java - InetAddress.getHostAddress() ipv6 compliant?

Question

Is InetAddress.getHostAddress() ipv6 compliant in JDK 1.6?

Specifically I am doing

InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostAddress()

Is it ipv6 compliant? Does it work for both ipv4 and v6 addresses?

Answer 1

The extended class java.net.Inet6Address is IPv6 compliant.

JavaDoc:

This class represents an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address. Defined by RFC 2373: IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture.

Basically, if you do InetAddress.getByName() or InetAddress.getByAddress() the methods identify whether the name or address is an IPv4 or IPv6 name/address and return an extended Inet4Address/Inet6Address respectively.

As for InetAddress.getHostAddress(), it returns a null. You will need java.net.Inet6Address.getHostAddress() to return an IPv6 string representable address.