In computer networking, an IP (Internet Protocol) address is a numerical identifier assigned permanently or temporarily to every device connected to a network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. Its two major functions are to identify a network or host on a network and also serve for location addressing.

 

There are currently two versions of IP addresses: IPv4 and IPv6, which can either be private (viewable within an internal network) or public (can be seen by other machines on the Internet).

 

Additionally, a host can be assigned a static or dynamic IP address depending on the network configurations. In this article, we will show you 4 ways to find your Linux machine or server public IP address from the terminal in Linux.

 

1. Using dig Utility

 

dig (domain information groper) is a simple command-line utility for probing DNS name servers. To find your public IP addresses, use the opendns.com resolver as in the command below:

$ dig +short myip.opendns.com @resolver1.opendns.com

78.45.145.41

 

2. Using host Utility

 

host command is an easy-to-use command-line utility for carrying out DNS lookups. The command below will help to display your systems public IP address.

$ host myip.opendns.com resolver1.opendns.com | grep "myip.opendns.com has" | awk '{print $4}'

78.45.145.41

 

Important: The next two methods employ third party websites to display your IP address on the command line as described below.

 

3. Using wget Command Line Downloader

 

wget is a powerful command-line downloader that supports various protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and many more. You can use it with third-party websites to view your public IP address as follows:

$ wget -qO- http://ipecho.net/plain | xargs echo
$ wget -qO - icanhazip.com

78.45.145.41

 

4. Using cURL Command Line Downloader

 

curl is a popular command-line tool for uploading or downloading files from a server using any of the supported protocols (HTTP, HTTPS, FILE, FTP, FTPS and others). The following commands display your public IP address.

$ curl ifconfig.co
$ curl ifconfig.me
$ curl icanhazip.com

78.45.145.41

 

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