Scripts for a future me - grabbing a container's IP address

 I'm writing this now, as I'll likely need it in the not-too-distant future.

I want to grab the IP address of a Linux box e.g. an Ubuntu container or VM.

The command ip address returns a slew of information: -

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: tunl0@NONE: <NOARP> mtu 1480 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ipip 0.0.0.0 brd 0.0.0.0
3: ip6tnl0@NONE: <NOARP> mtu 1452 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/tunnel6 :: brd ::
8: eth0@if9: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default 
    link/ether 02:42:ac:11:00:02 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff link-netnsid 0
    inet 172.17.0.2/16 brd 172.17.255.255 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

If I just want the address of one of the adapters e.g. eth0 then this works for me: -

ip address show dev eth0 | grep inet | awk '{print $2}' | cut -d/ -f1

172.17.0.2

or, an way shorter version: -

hostname -I

172.17.0.2 

As ever, Linux gives us fifty-leven ways to do things !

For the record, if ip isn't installed e.g. within an Ubuntu container, here's how to get it: -

apt-get update && apt-get install -y iproute2

which ip

/usr/sbin/ip

ip help

Usage: ip [ OPTIONS ] OBJECT { COMMAND | help }

       ip [ -force ] -batch filename

where  OBJECT := { link | address | addrlabel | route | rule | neigh | ntable |

                   tunnel | tuntap | maddress | mroute | mrule | monitor | xfrm |

                   netns | l2tp | fou | macsec | tcp_metrics | token | netconf | ila |

                   vrf | sr | nexthop }

       OPTIONS := { -V[ersion] | -s[tatistics] | -d[etails] | -r[esolve] |

                    -h[uman-readable] | -iec | -j[son] | -p[retty] |

                    -f[amily] { inet | inet6 | mpls | bridge | link } |

                    -4 | -6 | -I | -D | -M | -B | -0 |

                    -l[oops] { maximum-addr-flush-attempts } | -br[ief] |

                    -o[neline] | -t[imestamp] | -ts[hort] | -b[atch] [filename] |

                    -rc[vbuf] [size] | -n[etns] name | -N[umeric] | -a[ll] |

                    -c[olor]}