+ * \sa RFC 3986, 3.2.2; RFC 1123, 2.1; RFC 1034, 3.5
+ */
+static bool host_string_ok(const char *host)
+{
+ if (host == NULL || *host == '\0')
+ return false;
+ if (strchr(host, ':') != NULL)
+ return is_valid_ipv6_address(host);
+ if (is_v4_dot_quad(host))
+ return is_valid_ipv4_address(host);
+ return true;
+}
+
+/**
+ * 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