Get IPv6 prefix using perl

Question

I am trying to get the IPv6 Prefix from a given IPv6 Address given the prefix length.

I have already tried several modules (like Net::IP, Net::IPv6Addr, and Net::IPv6Address) but none seems to do exactly that.

Actually only Net::IPv6Address gives such a method but the result is not in IPv6 format.

For example: The IPv6: FE80:0202:B3FF:FE1E::/56 should give a prefix of FE80:0202:B3FF:FE00:: but when I run this code:

use Net::IPv6Address;
my $IPv6Address = new Net::IPv6Address("FE80:0202:B3FF:FE1E::", 56);
my $prefix = $IPv6Address->prefix();
print $prefix;

I get 'fe800202b3fffe' (Not the proper IPv6 format)...

I did the same in Java using the com.googlecode.ipv6.IPv6Address and com.googlecode.ipv6.IPv6NetworkMask libraries and it worked perfectly.

Any ideas on how to do this?

Thanks to everyone in advance!

Answer 1

There are many modules that can do this. I would suggest Net::Works or NetAddr::IP. With Net::Works:

use v5.16;

use Net::Works::Network;

my $network = Net::Works::Network->new_from_string( 
                 string => 'FE80:0202:B3FF:FE1E::/56' );
say $network->first;

This will output fe80:202:b3ff:fe00::.