In contrast, a public IP address is used outside a network to enable other network devices to identify and communicate with the said device. Private IP addresses are often used within a network. There are four types of IP addresses, namely, public, private, static, and dynamic. The word “ IP” stands for Internet Protocol, and this address identifies a device including its location, thereby helping devices communicate with each other. In this communication, the server and your device must know to whom it must send a message, and this is where IP addresses come in handy. If the server responds, the information you requested is sent back to your device. The request is then routed to the device or server with this IP address. You can also view the specific itnerface details using below command ip addr show eth0įind more commands to check local ip address of any Linux system.Every device on a network has a unique address called its IP address, and this helps identify the device and enables other devices to communicate with it.įor example, when you type a URL in your browser, such as, what essentially happens is that your device sends the URL to a Domain Naming Server that translates this URL to an IP address. The interface eth1 doesn’t configure with an IP address. Inet6 fe80::20c:29ff:fe89:79b3/64 scope linkĪs per the above output, this system has IP address 192.168.10.199 on Ethernet interface eth0. Sample output: 1: lo: mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue Use the following command to get ip address using ip command. Ip command generally available under /bin directory but some Linux os keep is under /sbin directory. Read: bash ifconfig: command not found on CentOS/RHEL 7.You can also view the specific interface details by specifying the interface name on the command line as below. TX packets:1333146 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 RX packets:3931508 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 Sample output: eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:22:83:79:A3 So you will need root or sudo access to run this on many of operating systems. Ifconfig command is generally available under /sbin directory. Read: 5 Commands to Get Public IP using Linux Terminal.An IP address allows a device to communicate with other devices over an IP-based network like the LAN or Internet. In general terms, it is an identity of any device. What is an IP Address?Ī Internet Protocol address (IP address) is the numerical label assigned to each hardware devices connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol to identify the devices. You can simply use these commands to find the local system IP address. How to check IP address on Linux machine using the command line interface? Mostly all of the Linux and Unix operating systems provides ifconfig and ip binary files.