BetterIpaddr

The IPAddr class that network engineers always wanted.

require "better_ipaddr"
addr = IPAddr::V4[some_source] # shortcut for .new, because your test suite
                               #   contains a zillion IP addresses and you're
                               #   tired of typing Socket::AF_INET
addr.inspect                   #
#=> "IPAddr::V4['1.2.3.0/24']" # inspect emits readable, copy-pastable ruby code
addr.host?                     # is it a host address?
addr.network?                  # or a network address?
addr.cidr                      # what is the CIDR representation?
addr.grow(1)                   # what is the next larger enclosing network?
addr + 1                       # what address comes after this one?
addr.size                      # how many host addresses fit in this network?
addr.mask_addr                 # what's the netmask (as an integer)?
addr.prefix_length             # what's the prefix length (as an integer)?
addr == other_addr             # are these the same network?
addr.cover?(other_addr)        # does this network contain that one?
addr.overlap?(other_addr)      # do these networks share any hosts?
addr.each { ... }              # do something with each host in this network
addr.first                     # what's the network address?
addr.last                      # what's the broadcast address?
addr.wildcard                  # what's the wildcard mask for this network?
addr.summarize_with(other)     # can these networks be summarized?

Bonus: comes with an IP space finder.

require "better_ipaddr/space"
space = BetterIpaddr::Space.new(some_array_of_ipaddrs,
                                space: IPAddr::V4["10.0.0.0/8"])

space.find_by_minimum_prefix_length(26) # => a subnet with at least 64 addresses
space.find_by_minimum_size(256)         # => a /24 or larger
space.gaps                              # => all your free subnets

Coming soon: MAC addresses and their various notations.

Installation

Ruby 2.0 or later is required. There are no other dependencies.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'better_ipaddr'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install better_ipaddr

Usage

There are multiple ways to load this gem.

The quick and dirty way is to require "better_ipaddr/core_extension", which adds all the additional methods directly to IPAddr. This is "monkey patching", so there may be unintended consequences. If you use this approach in another library or framework, be very clear about it with your users.

require "better_ipaddr/core_extension"
addr = IPAddr["1.0.0.1"]
class_c = addr << 8 # => IPAddr::V4["1.0.0.0/24"]
IPAddr.new("1.0.0.0/24").summarize_with(IPAddr["1.0.1.0/24"]) # => IPAddr::V4["1.0.0.0/23"]

This approach introduces at least one incompatibility: addresses that differ only in their netmask are considered equal in ipaddr, but not in better_ipaddr:

require 'ipaddr'
IPAddr.new('1.0.0.0/32') == IPAddr.new('1.0.0.0/8') # => true
require 'better_ipaddr/core_extension'
IPAddr.new('1.0.0.0/32') == IPAddr.new('1.0.0.0/8') # => false

The recommended way is to require "better_ipaddr" and use the IPAddr subclasses explicitly.

require "better_ipaddr"
addr = IPAddr::V4["1.0.0.1"]
class_c = addr << 8 # => IPAddr::V4["1.0.0.0/24"]

Another way is to require "better_ipaddr/methods" and mix BetterIpaddr::InstanceMethods into your own class which implements the rest of the IPAddr API, or into individual IPAddr objects.

The Kernel#IPAddr conversion method (in the spirit of Kernel#Array, Kernel#Integer, etc), is added to Kernel via require "better_ipaddr/kernel_method". It delegates to IPAddr::Base.from.

BetterIpaddr::Space, a collection class for dealing with sets of network addresses, is also available but not loaded by default.

require "better_ipaddr/space"
space = BetterIpaddr::Space.new([IPAddr::V4["10.0.0.0/24"],
                                 IPAddr::V4["10.0.2.0/24"]])
space.gaps # => BetterIpaddr::Space.new([IPAddr::V4["10.0.1.0/24"]])

The available methods are described in the API docs.

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/bjmllr/better_ipaddr. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.

Copyright and License

The gem is available as free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 3.