How to Get Your MAC Address on a Linux Command Line

In the vast world of computer networking, Media Access Control (MAC) addresses play a crucial role in identifying devices connected to a network. In this article, we will explore how to get your MAC address using the command line interface on a Linux system.

A MAC address is a unique identifier assigned to each network device, typically consisting of 12 characters separated by dashes, colons, or spaces. These characters can be either uppercase or lowercase letters and digits ranging from 0 to 9 and A to F.

To get your MAC address on a Linux command line, you can use the `ip` command followed by the `link` option. The syntax is as follows:

```

ip link show

```

This command will display a list of network interfaces available on your system, along with their corresponding MAC addresses. Look for the 'Link/ether' field in the output, which will contain the MAC address.

For example, if you run the `ip link show` command and see the following output:

```

1: lo: mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000

link/ether 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00

2: eth0: mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000

link/ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

```

The MAC address is `XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX` in this example.

Alternatively, you can use the `ip addr show` command to get your MAC address:

```

ip addr show

```

This command will display a list of network interfaces and their corresponding IP addresses. Look for the 'link/ether' field in the output, which will contain the MAC address.

In summary, getting your MAC address on a Linux command line is a straightforward process that can be accomplished using either the `ip link show` or `ip addr show` command. By following these simple steps, you can easily obtain your MAC address and use it for various networking purposes.

Linux command line get mac address