Originální popis anglicky: 
getaddrinfo, freeaddrinfo, gai_strerror - network address and service
  translation
Návod, kniha: Linux Programmer's Manual
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netdb.h>
 
int getaddrinfo(const char *node, const char *service,
                const struct addrinfo *hints,
                struct addrinfo **res);
 
void freeaddrinfo(struct addrinfo *res);
 
const char *gai_strerror(int errcode);
The 
getaddrinfo(3) function combines the functionality provided by the
  
getipnodebyname(3), 
getipnodebyaddr(3), 
getservbyname(3),
  and 
getservbyport(3) functions into a single interface. The thread-safe
  
getaddrinfo(3) function creates one or more socket address structures
  that can be used by the 
bind(2) and 
connect(2) system calls to
  create a client or a server socket.
The 
getaddrinfo(3) function is not limited to creating IPv4 socket
  address structures; IPv6 socket address structures can be created if IPv6
  support is available. These socket address structures can be used directly by
  
bind(2) or 
connect(2), to prepare a client or a server socket.
The 
addrinfo structure used by this function contains the following
  members:
 
struct addrinfo {
    int     ai_flags;
    int     ai_family;
    int     ai_socktype;
    int     ai_protocol;
    size_t  ai_addrlen;
    struct sockaddr *ai_addr;
    char   *ai_canonname;
    struct addrinfo *ai_next;
};
getaddrinfo(3) sets 
res to point to a dynamically-allocated link
  list of 
addrinfo structures, linked by the 
ai_next member. There
  are several reasons why the link list may have more than one 
addrinfo
  structure, including: if the network host is multi-homed; or if the same
  service is available from multiple socket protocols (one 
SOCK_STREAM
  address and another 
SOCK_DGRAM address, for example).
The members 
ai_family, 
ai_socktype, and 
ai_protocol have
  the same meaning as the corresponding parameters in the 
socket(2)
  system call. The 
getaddrinfo(3) function returns socket addresses in
  either IPv4 or IPv6 address family, (
ai_family will be set to either
  
PF_INET or 
PF_INET6).
The 
hints parameter specifies the preferred socket type, or protocol. A
  NULL 
hints specifies that any network address or protocol is
  acceptable. If this parameter is not 
NULL it points to an
  
addrinfo structure whose 
ai_family, 
ai_socktype, and
  
ai_protocol members specify the preferred socket type. 
PF_UNSPEC
  in 
ai_family specifies any protocol family (either IPv4 or IPv6, for
  example). 0 in 
ai_socktype or 
ai_protocol specifies that any
  socket type or protocol is acceptable as well. The 
ai_flags member
  specifies additional options, defined below. Multiple flags are specified by
  logically OR-ing them together. All the other members in the 
hints
  parameter must contain either 0, or a null pointer.
The 
node or 
service parameter, but not both, may be NULL.
  
node specifies either a numerical network address (dotted-decimal
  format for IPv4, hexadecimal format for IPv6) or a network hostname, whose
  network addresses are looked up and resolved. If the 
ai_flags member in
  the 
hints parameter contains the 
AI_NUMERICHOST flag then the
  
node parameter must be a numerical network address. The
  
AI_NUMERICHOST flag suppresses any potentially lengthy network host
  address lookups.
The 
getaddrinfo(3) function creates a link list of 
addrinfo
  structures, one for each network address subject to any restrictions imposed
  by the 
hints parameter. 
ai_canonname is set to point to the
  official name of the host, if 
ai_flags in 
hints includes the
  
AI_CANONNAME flag. 
ai_family, 
ai_socktype, and
  
ai_protocol specify the socket creation parameters. A pointer to the
  socket address is placed in the 
ai_addr member, and the length of the
  socket address, in bytes, is placed in the 
ai_addrlen member.
If 
node is NULL, the network address in each socket structure is
  initialized according to the 
AI_PASSIVE flag, which is set in the
  
ai_flags member of the 
hints parameter. The network address in
  each socket structure will be left unspecified if 
AI_PASSIVE flag is
  set. This is used by server applications, which intend to accept client
  connections on any network address. The network address will be set to the
  loopback interface address if the 
AI_PASSIVE flag is not set. This is
  used by client applications, which intend to connect to a server running on
  the same network host.
service sets the port number in the network address of each socket
  structure. If 
service is NULL the port number will be left
  uninitialized.
The 
freeaddrinfo(3) function frees the memory that was allocated for the
  dynamically allocated link list 
res.
getaddrinfo(3) returns 0 if it succeeds, or one of the following non-zero
  error codes:
  - EAI_FAMILY
- The requested address family is not supported at all.
  - EAI_SOCKTYPE
- The requested socket type is not supported at all.
  - EAI_BADFLAGS
- ai_flags contains invalid flags.
  - EAI_NONAME
- The node or service is not known. This error
      is also returned if both node and service are NULL.
  - EAI_SERVICE
- The requested service is not available for the requested
      socket type. It may be available through another socket type.
  - EAI_ADDRFAMILY
- The specified network host does not have any network
      addresses in the requested address family.
  - EAI_NODATA
- The specified network host exists, but does not have any
      network addresses defined.
  - EAI_MEMORY
- Out of memory.
  - EAI_FAIL
- The name server returned a permanent failure
    indication.
  - EAI_AGAIN
- The name server returned a temporary failure indication.
      Try again later.
  - EAI_SYSTEM
- Other system error, check errno for details.
The 
gai_strerror(3) function translates these error codes to a human
  readable string, suitable for error reporting.
POSIX 1003.1-2003. The 
getaddrinfo() function is documented in RFC 2553.
getipnodebyaddr(3), 
getipnodebyname(3)