Hacker News Reader

Comment by jhdevos | Hacker News Reader

Or even better:

  # Get my IP address by checking dyndns.org
  curl -s checkip.dyndns.org | grep -Eo '[0-9\.]+'

When reading the script, you want to know what it does, not what each character in it does.

Using long flags actually hinders that by adding clutter; you have to parse a much longer line to know what it does. Adding a functional commend and then using the clean short flags is IMHO a much better way.

View on HN

Or, even better:

  # Get my IP address by checking ifconfig.me
  curl -s ifconfig.me

The less work you have to do, the better :)

NOTE: If you visit ifconfig.me with your browser you get an html page full of text, but with the curl useragent it just returns the ip-address

That also introduces a dependency on ifconfig.me.

If your script contains four or five such 'less work you have to do', I bet it breaks within a year.

All of the above scripts had external dependencies.

Obviously that's a consideration, but this script has removed a dependency on checkip.dyndns.org. You could make the case that that's more likely to stay up, which is a valid decision.

Alternatively, you could create a "whereami" that returns the ip, and use that in your scripts. If ifconfig.me goes down for good, you have to change the url in one place. I'm sure you'll cope.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com