Full command

Short command

Description

status

stat

displays the current connection status

disconnect

disc

prevents wpa_supplicant from connecting to any access point

quit

q

exits wpa_cli

terminate

term

kills wpa_supplicant

reconfigure

recon

reloads wpa_supplicant with the configuration file supplied (-c parameter)

scan

scan

scans for available access points (only scans it, doesn‘t display anything)

scan_result

scan_r

displays the results of the last scan

list_networks

list_n

displays a list of configured networks and their status (active or not, enabled or disabled)

select_network

select_n

select a network among those defined to initiate a connection (ie select_network 0)

enable_network

enable_n

makes a configured network available for selection (ie enable_network 0)

disable_network

disable_n

makes a configured network unavailable for selection (ie disable_network 0)

remove_network

remove_n

removes a network and its configuration from the list (ie remove_network 0)

add_network

add_n

adds a new network to the list. Its id will be created automatically

set_network

set_n

shows a very short list of available options to configure a network when supplied with no parameters.

See next section for a list of extremely useful parameters to be used with set_network and get_network.

get_network

get_n

displays the required parameter for the specified network. See next section for a list of parameters

save_config

save_c

saves the configuration

Key

Description

Parameters

ssid

Access point name

string

id_str

String identifying the network

string

priority

Connection priority over other APs

number (0 being the default low priority)

bssid

Mac address of the access point

mac address

scan_ssid

Enable/disbale ssid scan

0, 1, 2

key_mgmt

Type of key management

WPA-PSK, WPA_EAP, None

pairwise

Pairwise ciphers for WPA

CCMP, TKIP

group=TKIP

Group ciphers for WPA

CCMP, TKIP, WEP104, WEP40

psk

Pre-Shared Key (clear or encrypted)

string

wep_key0

WEP key (up to 4: wep_key[0123])

string

eap

Extensible Authentication Protocol

MD5, MSCHAPV2, OTP, GTC, TLS, PEAP, TTLS

identity

EAP identity string

string

password

EAP password

string

ca_cert

Pathname to CA certificate file

/full/path/to/certificate

client_cert

Pathname to client certificate

/full/path/to/certificate (PEM/DER)

private_key

Pathname to a client private key file

/full/path/to/private_key (PEM/DER/PFX)