How to find the MAC address using the command line in Linux

Today, TipsMake.com will talk about an important command in Linux, ip . This command works on all Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, etc.

Ip command

The ip command is a very powerful command that replaces the ifconfig command and is part of the network tool pack. The general syntax of the command is as follows:

 ip xx

Where xx must be replaced with one of the following to get the desired output.

-V to display ip utility version
-s to display more information about the command

How to find the MAC address using the command line in Linux Picture 1 — Ip command in Linux

Find the MAC address of the Linux system

The MAC address is an important parameter of network equipment, including PC hardware or servers. Every PC's network device needs a unique MAC address.

Launch Terminal and enter the ip link command:

 ip link show

Example results:

 1: lo: mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: enp1s0: mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether XXXXXXXXXXXX brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 3: wlp2s0: mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether YYYYYYYYYYYY brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff  1: lo: mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: enp1s0: mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether XXXXXXXXXXXX brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 3: wlp2s0: mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether YYYYYYYYYYYY brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff  1: lo: mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: enp1s0: mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether XXXXXXXXXXXX brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 3: wlp2s0: mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether YYYYYYYYYYYY brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff  1: lo: mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: enp1s0: mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether XXXXXXXXXXXX brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 3: wlp2s0: mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether YYYYYYYYYYYY brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

The ip utility will list a few parameters of the device. For each device, there are two lines summarizing the link state and characteristics. The first line summarizes the device's current name, the flags set on the device, MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit), etc.

The second line indicates the type of link layer in use and the current hardware address (MAC address). In the example above, XXXXXXXXXXXX and YYYYYYYYYYY are the MAC addresses of the two LAN connections in use.

Samuel Daniel

Update 18 January 2020

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