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ifconfig stands for "interface configuration."
It is used to *view and change the configuration* of the network interfaces on your system.
Running the ifconfig command with no arguments, like this:
[source,bash]
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ifconfig
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...displays information about all network interfaces currently in operation. The output will resemble the following:
[source,bash]
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eth0 Link encap:Ethernet *HWaddr* 09:00:12:90:e3:e5 // <1>
inet addr:192.168.1.29 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:fe70:e3f5/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:54071 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:48515 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:22009423 (20.9 MiB) TX bytes:25690847 (24.5 MiB)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0xd020
lo Link encap:Local Loopback // <2>
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:83 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:83 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:7766 (7.5 KiB) TX bytes:7766 (7.5 KiB)
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<1> *HWaddr* This is your MAC address. *eth0* is the first Ethernet interface. (Additional Ethernet interfaces would be named *eth1,* *eth2,* etc.) This type of interface is usually a NIC connected to the network by a category 5 cable.
<2> *lo* is the loopback interface. This is a special network interface that the system uses to communicate with itself.
*Configuring an interface*
ifconfig can be used at the command line to configure (or re-configure) a network interface.
This is often unnecessary since this configuration is often handled by a script when you boot the system. If you'd like to do so manually, you will need superuser privileges, so we'll use sudo again when running these commands.