WPA_SUPPLICANT(8) BSD System Manager's Manual WPA_SUPPLICANT(8)NAMEwpa_supplicant — WPA/802.11i Supplicant for wireless network devices
SYNOPSISwpa_supplicant [-BdehLqsvw] -i ifname -c config-file
DESCRIPTION
The wpa_supplicant utility is an implementation of the WPA Supplicant
component, i.e., the part that runs in the client stations. It imple‐
ments WPA key negotiation with a WPA Authenticator and EAP authentication
with an Authentication Server. In addition, wpa_supplicant controls the
roaming and IEEE 802.11 authentication/association support of the wlan(4)
module and can be used to configure static WEP keys based on identified
networks.
The wpa_supplicant utility is designed to be a “daemon” program that runs
in the background and acts as the backend component controlling the wire‐
less connection. It supports separate frontend programs such as the
text-based wpa_cli(8) program.
The following arguments must be specified on the command line:
-i ifname
Use the specified wireless interface.
-c config-file
Use the settings in the specified configuration file when manag‐
ing the wireless interface. See wpa_supplicant.conf(5) for a
description of the configuration file syntax and contents.
Changes to the configuration file can be reloaded by sending a
SIGHUP to the wpa_supplicant process or with the wpa_cli(8) util‐
ity, using “wpa_cli reconfigure”.
OPTIONS
The following options are available:
-d Enable debugging messages. If this option is supplied twice,
more verbose messages are displayed.
-e Use an external IEEE 802.1X Supplicant program and disable the
internal Supplicant. This option is not normally used.
-h Show help text.
-q Decrease debugging verbosity (i.e., counteract the use of the -d
flag).
-s Send log messages through syslog(3) instead of to the terminal.
-v Display version information on the terminal and exit.
-w If the specified interface is not present, wait for it to be
added; e.g. a cardbus device to be inserted. This option is not
normally used; instead, devd(8) should be configured to launch
wpa_supplicant when a device is created.
-B Detach from the controlling terminal and run as a daemon process
in the background.
-K Include key information in debugging output.
-L Display the license for this program on the terminal and exit.
SEE ALSOan(4), ath(4), ipw(4), iwi(4), ral(4), rum(4), ural(4), wi(4), wlan(4),
wpi(4), zyd(4), wpa_supplicant.conf(5), devd(8), ifconfig(8), wpa_cli(8)HISTORY
The wpa_supplicant utility first appeared in FreeBSD 6.0.
AUTHORS
The wpa_supplicant utility was written by Jouni Malinen ⟨j@w1.fi⟩. This
manual page is derived from the README file included in the
wpa_supplicant distribution.
BSD March 24, 2008 BSD
