[3.6] closes bpo-25041: Document AF_PACKET socket address format. (GH-9209)

(cherry picked from commit 731ff68eeef58babdf2b32dc9a73b141760c2be9)

Co-authored-by: Cheryl Sabella <cheryl.sabella@gmail.com>

1 files changed, 40 insertions, 14 deletions

diff --git a/Doc/library/socket.rst b/Doc/library/socket.rst
index 974df4c..f4e5af9 100644
--- a/Doc/library/socket.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/socket.rst
@@ -156,10 +156,25 @@ created.  Socket addresses are represented as follows:
 
   .. versionadded:: 3.6
 
-- Certain other address families (:const:`AF_PACKET`, :const:`AF_CAN`)
-  support specific representations.
-
-  .. XXX document them!
+- :const:`AF_PACKET` is a low-level interface directly to network devices.
+  The packets are represented by the tuple
+  ``(ifname, proto[, pkttype[, hatype[, addr]]])`` where:
+
+  - *ifname* - String specifying the device name.
+  - *proto* - An in network-byte-order integer specifying the Ethernet
+    protocol number.
+  - *pkttype* - Optional integer specifying the packet type:
+
+    - ``PACKET_HOST`` (the default) - Packet addressed to the local host.
+    - ``PACKET_BROADCAST`` - Physical-layer broadcast packet.
+    - ``PACKET_MULTIHOST`` - Packet sent to a physical-layer multicast address.
+    - ``PACKET_OTHERHOST`` - Packet to some other host that has been caught by
+      a device driver in promiscuous mode.
+    - ``PACKET_OUTGOING`` - Packet originating from the local host that is
+      looped back to a packet socket.
+  - *hatype* - Optional integer specifying the ARP hardware address type.
+  - *addr* - Optional bytes-like object specifying the hardware physical
+    address, whose interpretation depends on the device.
 
 If you use a hostname in the *host* portion of IPv4/v6 socket address, the
 program may show a nondeterministic behavior, as Python uses the first address
@@ -343,6 +358,17 @@ Constants
 
    .. versionadded:: 3.5
 
+
+.. data:: AF_PACKET
+          PF_PACKET
+          PACKET_*
+
+   Many constants of these forms, documented in the Linux documentation, are
+   also defined in the socket module.
+
+   Availability: Linux >= 2.2.
+
+
 .. data:: AF_RDS
           PF_RDS
           SOL_RDS
@@ -424,16 +450,16 @@ The following functions all create :ref:`socket objects <socket-objects>`.
 
    Create a new socket using the given address family, socket type and protocol
    number.  The address family should be :const:`AF_INET` (the default),
-   :const:`AF_INET6`, :const:`AF_UNIX`, :const:`AF_CAN` or :const:`AF_RDS`. The
-   socket type should be :const:`SOCK_STREAM` (the default),
-   :const:`SOCK_DGRAM`, :const:`SOCK_RAW` or perhaps one of the other ``SOCK_``
-   constants. The protocol number is usually zero and may be omitted or in the
-   case where the address family is :const:`AF_CAN` the protocol should be one
-   of :const:`CAN_RAW` or :const:`CAN_BCM`.  If *fileno* is specified, the other
-   arguments are ignored, causing the socket with the specified file descriptor
-   to return.  Unlike :func:`socket.fromfd`, *fileno* will return the same
-   socket and not a duplicate. This may help close a detached socket using
-   :meth:`socket.close()`.
+   :const:`AF_INET6`, :const:`AF_UNIX`, :const:`AF_CAN`, :const:`AF_PACKET`, or
+   :const:`AF_RDS`. The socket type should be :const:`SOCK_STREAM` (the
+   default), :const:`SOCK_DGRAM`, :const:`SOCK_RAW` or perhaps one of the other
+   ``SOCK_`` constants. The protocol number is usually zero and may be omitted
+   or in the case where the address family is :const:`AF_CAN` the protocol
+   should be one of :const:`CAN_RAW` or :const:`CAN_BCM`.  If *fileno* is
+   specified, the other arguments are ignored, causing the socket with the
+   specified file descriptor to return.  Unlike :func:`socket.fromfd`, *fileno*
+   will return the same socket and not a duplicate. This may help close a
+   detached socket using :meth:`socket.close()`.
 
    The newly created socket is :ref:`non-inheritable <fd_inheritance>`.