Regular expression that matches valid IPv6 addresses

I was unable to get @Factor Mystic's answer to work with POSIX regular expressions, so I wrote one that works with POSIX regular expressions and PERL regular expressions.

It should match:

IPv6 addresses
zero compressed IPv6 addresses (section 2.2 of rfc5952)
link-local IPv6 addresses with zone index (section 11 of rfc4007)
IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Address (section 2 of rfc6052)
IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses (section 2.1 of rfc2765)
IPv4-translated addresses (section 2.1 of rfc2765)

IPv6 Regular Expression:

(([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){7,7}[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,7}:|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,5}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,2}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,3}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,3}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,2}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:((:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,6})|:((:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(:[0-9a-fA-F]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]{1,}|::(ffff(:0{1,4}){0,1}:){0,1}((25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}(25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}:((25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}(25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9]))

For ease of reading, the following is the above regular expression split at major OR points into separate lines:

# IPv6 RegEx
(
([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){7,7}[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|          # 1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8
([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,7}:|                         # 1::                              1:2:3:4:5:6:7::
([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|         # 1::8             1:2:3:4:5:6::8  1:2:3:4:5:6::8
([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,5}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,2}|  # 1::7:8           1:2:3:4:5::7:8  1:2:3:4:5::8
([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,3}|  # 1::6:7:8         1:2:3:4::6:7:8  1:2:3:4::8
([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,3}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,4}|  # 1::5:6:7:8       1:2:3::5:6:7:8  1:2:3::8
([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,2}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,5}|  # 1::4:5:6:7:8     1:2::4:5:6:7:8  1:2::8
[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:((:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,6})|       # 1::3:4:5:6:7:8   1::3:4:5:6:7:8  1::8  
:((:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|                     # ::2:3:4:5:6:7:8  ::2:3:4:5:6:7:8 ::8       ::     
fe80:(:[0-9a-fA-F]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]{1,}|     # fe80::7:8%eth0   fe80::7:8%1     (link-local IPv6 addresses with zone index)
::(ffff(:0{1,4}){0,1}:){0,1}
((25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}
(25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])|          # ::255.255.255.255   ::ffff:255.255.255.255  ::ffff:0:255.255.255.255  (IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses and IPv4-translated addresses)
([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}:
((25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}
(25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])           # 2001:db8:3:4::192.0.2.33  64:ff9b::192.0.2.33 (IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Address)
)

# IPv4 RegEx
((25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}(25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])

To make the above easier to understand, the following "pseudo" code replicates the above:

IPV4SEG  = (25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])
IPV4ADDR = (IPV4SEG\.){3,3}IPV4SEG
IPV6SEG  = [0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}
IPV6ADDR = (
           (IPV6SEG:){7,7}IPV6SEG|                # 1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8
           (IPV6SEG:){1,7}:|                      # 1::                                 1:2:3:4:5:6:7::
           (IPV6SEG:){1,6}:IPV6SEG|               # 1::8               1:2:3:4:5:6::8   1:2:3:4:5:6::8
           (IPV6SEG:){1,5}(:IPV6SEG){1,2}|        # 1::7:8             1:2:3:4:5::7:8   1:2:3:4:5::8
           (IPV6SEG:){1,4}(:IPV6SEG){1,3}|        # 1::6:7:8           1:2:3:4::6:7:8   1:2:3:4::8
           (IPV6SEG:){1,3}(:IPV6SEG){1,4}|        # 1::5:6:7:8         1:2:3::5:6:7:8   1:2:3::8
           (IPV6SEG:){1,2}(:IPV6SEG){1,5}|        # 1::4:5:6:7:8       1:2::4:5:6:7:8   1:2::8
           IPV6SEG:((:IPV6SEG){1,6})|             # 1::3:4:5:6:7:8     1::3:4:5:6:7:8   1::8
           :((:IPV6SEG){1,7}|:)|                  # ::2:3:4:5:6:7:8    ::2:3:4:5:6:7:8  ::8       ::       
           fe80:(:IPV6SEG){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]{1,}|  # fe80::7:8%eth0     fe80::7:8%1  (link-local IPv6 addresses with zone index)
           ::(ffff(:0{1,4}){0,1}:){0,1}IPV4ADDR|  # ::255.255.255.255  ::ffff:255.255.255.255  ::ffff:0:255.255.255.255 (IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses and IPv4-translated addresses)
           (IPV6SEG:){1,4}:IPV4ADDR               # 2001:db8:3:4::192.0.2.33  64:ff9b::192.0.2.33 (IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Address)
           )

I posted a script on GitHub which tests the regular expression: https://gist.github.com/syzdek/6086792

The following will validate IPv4, IPv6 (full and compressed), and IPv6v4 (full and compressed) addresses:

'/^(?>(?>([a-f0-9]{1,4})(?>:(?1)){7}|(?!(?:.*[a-f0-9](?>:|$)){8,})((?1)(?>:(?1)){0,6})?::(?2)?)|(?>(?>(?1)(?>:(?1)){5}:|(?!(?:.*[a-f0-9]:){6,})(?3)?::(?>((?1)(?>:(?1)){0,4}):)?)?(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|1[0-9]{2}|[1-9]?[0-9])(?>\.(?4)){3}))$/iD'

It sounds like you may be using Python. If so, you can use something like this:

import socket

def check_ipv6(n):
    try:
        socket.inet_pton(socket.AF_INET6, n)
        return True
    except socket.error:
        return False

print check_ipv6('::1') # True
print check_ipv6('foo') # False
print check_ipv6(5)     # TypeError exception
print check_ipv6(None)  # TypeError exception

I don't think you have to have IPv6 compiled in to Python to get inet_pton, which can also parse IPv4 addresses if you pass in socket.AF_INET as the first parameter. Note: this may not work on non-Unix systems.

Regular expression that matches valid IPv6 addresses

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