Bash ifconfig: command not found in Ubuntu & Debian

The ifconfig command is a useful utility to display and set network configuration on Ubuntu and Debian Linux systems. This command is available under the net-tools package is replaced with modern iproute2 Debian packages.

When your type ifconfig command on the latest operating systems, you will get the following error on Ubuntu and Debian-based systems.

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-bash: ifconfig: command not found

Install net-tools Package

The ifconfig binary file comes with the net-tools Debian package. Install this package using the following command which is available under default repositories.

sudo apt-get install net-tools 

Using ifconfig

Then you can use this command to check network configuration details. The below command will show details for all interfaces configured on your Debian system.

ifconfig 

Output:
eth0: flags=4163  mtu 1500
        inet 206.81.1.33  netmask 255.255.240.0  broadcast 206.81.15.255
        inet6 fe80::6cdc:96ff:fe05:82a8  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20
        ether 6e:dc:96:05:82:a8  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 43032855  bytes 6789955172 (6.7 GB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 38997280  bytes 38954070507 (38.9 GB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

eth1: flags=4163  mtu 1500
        inet 10.136.0.2  netmask 255.255.0.0  broadcast 10.136.255.255
        inet6 fe80::14d4:5eff:fe05:e5ed  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20
        ether 16:d4:5e:05:e5:ed  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 311  bytes 21770 (21.7 KB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 327  bytes 22986 (22.9 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

lo: flags=73  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 700780899  bytes 2751296590452 (2.7 TB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 700780899  bytes 2751296590452 (2.7 TB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Use below command to show details for interface eth0 in system

ifconfig eth0 

To get all interfaces details using ifconfig use the following command.

ifconfig -a 

Conclusion

This tutorial helped you to resolve -bash: ifconfig: command not found error on an Ubuntu and other Debian-based systems.