myip

Local and public IP addresses, gateway and DNS.

Synopsis

myip [options] [-- curl options]

Description

myip shows every address this machine has, on one screen, with a few words on what each network interface is. It answers "what is my IP" for the three different things that question can mean:

• The local address, the one other machines on your network use to reach you, such as 192.168.1.24.
• The gateway, the router that carries your traffic out, such as 192.168.1.1.
• The public address, the one websites see. At home it belongs to your router, and many machines share it.

wlp3s0      192.168.1.24/24       Wi-Fi Home-5G
            fe80::6c3d:9a1f:4b20:e17c/64
enp0s31f6   no address            no cable
virbr0      192.168.122.1/24      libvirt bridge
tailscale0  100.101.7.52/32       VPN
gateway     192.168.1.1 on wlp3s0
dns         192.168.1.1 through systemd-resolved
public      203.0.113.47

The number after the slash is the prefix length. /24 means the first three numbers name the network, so every address from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254 is on the same local network as you.

Which interfaces it lists

myip lists every interface that is switched on, which is what ip link show up prints. It leaves out two kinds:

• lo, the loopback interface, which is always 127.0.0.1.
• veth interfaces. Docker, podman and Kubernetes make one per container, as the host end of the container's network cable. They have no address of their own and would fill the screen.

An interface that is on but has no address shows no address. With -4 or -6, a bridge or VPN with no address of that family is left out, since it would only add noise.

What each interface is

The third column comes from the interface name and from /sys/class/net:

Gateway and DNS

The gateway comes from the default route in ip route. When there is none, myip says none, no default route, which means this machine cannot reach anything outside its own network.

The DNS servers come from /etc/resolv.conf. On Ubuntu, Fedora and other distros that run systemd-resolved, that file only names 127.0.0.53, a small resolver on this machine that passes questions on. myip then asks resolvectl dns for the real servers and adds through systemd-resolved.

The public IP

myip asks https://ifconfig.me with curl, with a 5 second limit. When curl is missing or gets no address back, it asks OpenDNS with dig, which answers the question myip.opendns.com with the address it saw. Use --local when nothing should leave the machine, for example on a network where you do not want to be seen asking.

Options

In scripts

myip -q prints one address and nothing else. It is the address this machine uses when it talks to the internet, found with ip route get 1.1.1.1, which asks the kernel for the route without sending a packet. That is the address to put in a config file or a URL for other machines on your network.

$ echo "open http://$(myip -q):8000/ on your phone"
open http://192.168.1.24:8000/ on your phone

myip --public prints only the public address, for a firewall rule or an allow list:

$ myip --public
203.0.113.47

Pass-through

Options after -- go to curl when it fetches the public IP. Use them to ask through one interface or a proxy:

$ myip --public -- --interface tailscale0
$ myip --public -- --proxy socks5h://127.0.0.1:1080

Needs

ip from iproute2 (iproute on Fedora), which every mainstream distro installs. For the public IP, curl, or dig from bind9-dnsutils on Debian and Ubuntu, bind-utils on Fedora and openSUSE, bind on Arch and bind-tools on Alpine. nmcli from NetworkManager or iw adds the Wi-Fi name. resolvectl adds the real DNS servers behind systemd-resolved.

Examples

Everything

$ myip
enp2s0           192.168.122.210/24    wired
                 fe80::16f1:c176:5d39:c1fb/64
docker0          172.17.0.1/16         Docker bridge
br-e91152e75d94  172.18.0.1/16         Docker bridge
                 fc00:f853:ccd:e793::1/64
gateway          192.168.122.1 on enp2s0
dns              192.168.122.1
public           203.0.113.47

The address for a script

$ myip -q
192.168.122.210

Only IPv6, and nothing sent out

$ myip -6 --local
enp2s0           fe80::16f1:c176:5d39:c1fb/64  wired
br-e91152e75d94  fc00:f853:ccd:e793::1/64  Docker bridge
gateway          none, no default route
dns              192.168.122.1

No IPv6 default route means this machine has no IPv6 internet. The fe80:: address works only on the local link.

See the commands

$ myip -v --public
+ curl -s --max-time 5 https://ifconfig.me
203.0.113.47

No internet

$ myip --public
myip: no answer from ifconfig.me in 5s. Check the link with: netcheck

Troubleshooting

myip: no answer from ifconfig.me in 5s

The machine cannot reach the internet, or DNS does not work. Run netcheck to find the step that fails.

gateway none, no default route

The machine is not connected, or DHCP gave no router. On NetworkManager systems, nmcli device shows the state of each interface.

An address starts with 169.254.

The interface asked DHCP for an address and got no answer, so it made one up. Nothing outside the cable can reach it. Check the router, or run netcheck.

The public IP is not the one your router shows

Your provider may use carrier-grade NAT, where many customers share one public address. Addresses from 100.64.0.0 to 100.127.255.255 on the router's outside mean that. Ports you forward on the router then do not reach you from the internet.

The Wi-Fi name is missing

Install NetworkManager's nmcli, or iw. Without either, myip shows only Wi-Fi.

Exit status

See also

netcheck, lan, ip(8), resolvectl(1)