README.md

   1 # **_`libloc`_** - IP Address Location
   2
   3 [Home](https://www.ipfire.org/location)
   4
   5 `libloc` is a library for fast and efficient IP address location.
   6
   7 It offers:
   8
   9 - **The Fastest Lookups**: O(1) lookup time for IP addresses using a binary tree structure.
  10 - **Low Memory Footprint**: The database is packed in a very efficient format.
  11 - **Security**: Integrated signature verification for data integrity.
  12 - **Maintainability**: Automatic updates.
  13 - **Standalone**: No external dependencies, easy to integrate.
  14
  15 `libloc` is ideal for:
  16
  17 - Firewalls
  18 - Intrusion Prevention/Detection Systems (IPS/IDS)
  19 - Web Applications
  20 - Network Management Tools
  21
  22 The publicly available daily updated database stores information about:
  23
  24 - The entire IPv6 and IPv4 Internet
  25 - Autonomous System Information including names
  26 - Country Codes, Names and Continent Codes
  27
  28 ## Command Line
  29
  30 `libloc` comes with a command line tool which makes it easy to test the library or
  31 integrate it into your shell scripts. location(8) knows a couple of commands to retrieve
  32 country or Autonomous System of an IP address and can generate lists of networks to be
  33 imported into other software.
  34
  35 `location (8)` is versatile and very easy to use.
  36
  37 ## Language Bindings
  38
  39 `libloc` itself is written in C. There are bindings for the following languages available:
  40
  41 - Python 3
  42 - Lua
  43 - Perl
  44
  45 `libloc` comes with native Python bindings which are used by its main command-line tool
  46 location. They are the most advanced bindings as they support reading from the database
  47 as well as writing to it.