The
wpa_cli utility is a text-based frontend program for interacting with
wpa_supplicant(8). It is used to query current status, change configuration, trigger events, and request interactive user input.
The
wpa_cli utility can show the current authentication status, selected security mode, dot11 and dot1x MIBs, etc. In addition,
wpa_cli can configure EAPOL state machine parameters and trigger events such as reassociation and IEEE 802.1X logoff/logon.
The
wpa_cli utility provides an interface to supply authentication information such as username and password when it is not provided in the
wpa_supplicant.conf(5) configuration file. This can be used, for example, to implement one-time passwords or generic token card authentication where the authentication is based on a challenge-response that uses an external device for generating the response.
The
wpa_cli utility supports two modes: interactive and command line. Both modes share the same command set and the main difference is that in interactive mode,
wpa_cli provides access to unsolicited messages (event messages, username/password requests).
Interactive mode is started when
wpa_cli is executed without any parameters on the command line. Commands are then entered from the controlling terminal in response to the
wpa_cli prompt. In command line mode, the same commands are entered as command line arguments.
The control interface of
wpa_supplicant(8) can be configured to allow non-root user access by using the
ctrl_interface_group parameter in the
wpa_supplicant.conf(5) configuration file. This makes it possible to run
wpa_cli with a normal user account.