This module provides a protocol-independent way to use IPv4 and IPv6 sockets, intended as a replacement for IO::Socket::INET. Most constructor arguments and methods are provided in a backward-compatible way. For a list of known differences, see the IO::Socket::INET INCOMPATIBILITES section.

It uses the getaddrinfo(3) function to convert hostnames and service names or port numbers into sets of possible addresses to connect to or listen on. This allows it to work for IPv6 where the system supports it, while still falling back to IPv4-only on systems which don't.