Best way to extract MAC address from ifconfig's output?

Question

What is the best way to extract the MAC address from ifconfig\'s output?

Sample output:

bash-3.00# ifconfig eth0        
eth0      Link          


        

Answer 1

I prefer the method described here (with slight modification): http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_figure_out_my_ip_address_on_a_mac.html

ifconfig | grep "inet " | grep -v 127.0.0.1 | cut -d " " -f2

Which you can then alias to a short 'myip' command for future use:

echo "alias myip=\"ifconfig | grep 'inet ' | grep -v 127.0.0.1 | cut -d ' ' -f2\"" >> ~/.bash_profile