Thats a really good point, something that is kind of frustrating because it makes the code more complex. Also, note that ifconfig is a linux thing, not an NT thing... so this thing is not portable.

$_ = `/sbin/ifconfig $if`;
(/inet addr:((\d{1,3}\.?){4})/m) ?
   ($ipaddr = $1) : (warn 'ifconfig failed');
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I seem to remember there being a get function that does this too, but I can't remember it at the moment.