HOSTAPD(8)

💖 HOSTAPD(8) — the hostapd era 💖

okay bestie, sit DOWN, because we're about to talk about hostapd, the section-8 icon of the wireless world. she's an IEEE 802.11 AP, she's an IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP/RADIUS Authenticator, and honestly? she's serving.

✨ NAME ✨

hostapd — IEEE 802.11 AP, IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP/RADIUS Authenticator 👑

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

hostapd [-hdBKtv] [-P <PID file>] <configuration file(s)>

that's it, that's the whole summoning ritual. give her some config files and she's booked and busy 💅

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so this manual page? it documents hostapd the daemon briefly. just a lil vibe check, not the whole novel, iykyk.

hostapd is a user space daemon for access point and authentication servers. literally what it says on the tin, no cap. she implements:

• IEEE 802.11 access point management
• IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP Authenticators
• RADIUS authentication server

and the current version supports Linux (that's Host AP and mac80211-based drivers) plus FreeBSD (net80211). so she's multilingual, she's versatile, she's got range 🦋

the whole point of hostapd is that she's designed to be a "daemon" program — meaning she runs in the background being mysterious and powerful, acting as the backend component that controls authentication. she does not need to be perceived, she just needs to work.

and because she's a generous queen, she supports separate frontend programs too. there's an example text-based frontend called hostapd_cli and it ships included with hostapd. bestie comes pre-installed, we love a package deal 🫶

💅 OPTIONS 💅

here's the summary of options. for a complete description, run hostapd from the command line, because this list is the trailer not the full movie.

• -h — show usage. she'll tell you how to use her, very demure, very mindful.
• -d — show more debug messages. louder. chattier. more lore.
• -dd — show even more debug messages. double the d, double the drama, she's telling you EVERYTHING 😭
• -B — run daemon in the background. she's leaving the group chat to go do her job, main character behavior, no further questions.
• -P <PID file> — path to PID file. you tell her where to write down her own PID, cute, a little diary entry 📓
• -K — include key data in debug messages. yes, actual key data. in the debug output. be so careful with this one bestie, that's sensitive info just hanging out in your logs 🙈
• -t — include timestamps in some debug messages. not all of them. some. she keeps it a little mysterious ✨
• -v — show hostapd version. the classic "what era are we in" check.

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

hostapd_cli(1) — her bestie, the frontend. go say hi.

💜 AUTHOR 💜

hostapd was written by Jouni Malinen <j@w1.fi>. absolute legend, we stan, thank you for your service 🫡

this manual page was written by Faidon Liambotis <faidon@cube.gr>, for the Debian project (but may be used by others). so generous, so giving, sharing is caring fr fr 💖

and that's a wrap on the hostapd page, section 8, dated April 7, 2005, from the hostapd source. she's been iconic since 2005 and she's not slowing down. periodt. 🌈⭐💅