+/**
+ * Parse and validate URL string.
+ *
+ * The URL syntax is loosely based on RFC 3986, supporting one of
+ * - "["host"]"[:port] for native IPv6 addresses and
+ * - host[:port] for IPv4 hostnames and DNS names.
+ *
+ * Native IPv6 addresses must be enclosed in square brackets, since
+ * otherwise there is an ambiguity with the port separator `:'.
+ * The 'port' part is always considered to be a number; if absent,
+ * it is set to -1, to indicate that a default port is to be used.
+ *
+ * The following are valid examples:
+ * - 10.10.1.1
+ * - 10.10.1.2:8000
+ * - localhost
+ * - localhost:8001
+ * - [::1]:8000
+ * - [badc0de::1]
+ *
+ * \param url The URL string to take apart.
+ * \param host To return the copied host part of \a url.
+ * \param hostlen The maximum length of \a host.
+ * \param port To return the port number (if any) of \a url.
+ *
+ * \return Pointer to \a host, or NULL if failed.
+ * If NULL is returned, \a host and \a portnum are undefined. If no
+ * port number was present in \a url, \a portnum is set to -1.
+ *
+ * \sa RFC 3986, 3.2.2/3.2.3
+ */
+char *parse_url(const char *url,
+ char *host, ssize_t hostlen,
+ int32_t *port)
+{
+ const char *o = url;
+ char *c = host, *end = c + (hostlen - 1);
+
+ *port = -1;
+
+ if (o == NULL || hostlen < 1)
+ goto failed;
+
+ if (*o == '[') {
+ for (++o; (*c = *o == ']' ? '\0' : *o); c++, o++)
+ if (c == end)
+ goto failed;
+
+ if (*o++ != ']' || (*o != '\0' && *o != ':'))
+ goto failed;
+ } else {
+ for (; (*c = *o == ':'? '\0' : *o); c++, o++)
+ if (c == end)
+ goto failed;
+ }
+
+ if (*o == ':')
+ if (para_atoi32(++o, port) < 0 ||
+ *port < 0 || *port > 0xffff)
+ goto failed;
+
+ if (host_string_ok(host))
+ return host;
+failed:
+ *host = '\0';
+ return NULL;
+}