diff --git a/tools/examples/vif-common.sh b/tools/examples/vif-common.sh
index 18a0b6c88e..105a843900 100644
--- a/tools/examples/vif-common.sh
+++ b/tools/examples/vif-common.sh
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ function handle_iptable()
 #
 function ip_of()
 {
-  ip addr show "$1" | sed -n 's/^.*inet \([0-9.]*\).*$/\1/p'
+  ip addr show "$1" | awk "/^.*inet.*$1\$/{print \$2}" | sed 's,/.*,,'
 }