Getting IP address for a network interface through the filesystem, not ifconfig
 

I'm using an embedded system that is running a cut-down version of linux. We're running a Java app on top of it.

I need to find the IP address for a network interface, so I can use it in my program. The only problem is I can't make a call to ifconfig to read the ip address information because on this platform, running external processes from Java is broken, unfortunately (and there's no fix in sight either).

So I figure there must be a way to get this information from the filesystem, somewhere. Like from /proc or /sys or something. I've had a pretty good look but couldn't see anything.

Can anyone tell me how I can get the IP address for a network interface without having to run a command (like ifconfig)???

Thanks in advance

have you considered doing an strace to see where ifconfig gets the info??

system call: ioctl
 

Thanks mate. That was a very helpful little piece of information. I found out it is done through a system call:

Thanks for your help.