One-liner to retrieve external IP address [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate:
Finding the Public IP address in a shell script

For use in scripting, it would be handy to be able to do this:

IP=`....something ....`
echo ...$IP... >> configfile

I'm looking for the IP address as seen by the web, in this instance. Ubuntu, if it makes a difference. Happy to install a package or two.

IP=`curl ifconfig.me`

[stephan@nemesis] ~ $ curl ifconfig.me
173.13.169.18

Voila. :)

(Edit Sept 2020)

I usually use icanhazip.com now. You may need to chop the newline, though:

curl -s icanhazip.com | tr -d '\n'

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