On Tuesday, Feb 12th 2008 at 11:01 -0000, quoth Tom Brown: => =>> =>> $ IP="1234.2345.3456.4578" =>> $ echo $IP | cut -d. -f3 =>> 3456 =>> =>> by the way, i don't think it solves any of your exact problems, but =>> =>> $ man ipcalc =>> =>> => => =>thanks all - i have 'solved' this in my case (no pun intended) with the =>following => =>ADDR=`ifconfig | grep inet | head -1 | awk {'print$2'} | cut -d. -f3` People love to use very long pipelines. How about... ifconfig eth0 | awk -F. '/inet addr:/ {print $3}' -- Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like a banana. Stranger things have .0. happened but none stranger than this. Does your driver's license say Organ ..0 Donor?Black holes are where God divided by zero. Listen to me! We are all- 000 individuals! What if this weren't a hypothetical question? steveo at syslang.net