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.Dd July 18, 2012
.Dt HOSTAPD 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm hostapd
.Nd "authenticator for IEEE 802.11 networks"
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl BdhKtv
.Op Fl P Ar pidfile
.Ar config-file ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility
is an authenticator for IEEE 802.11 networks.
It provides full support for WPA/IEEE 802.11i and
can also act as an IEEE 802.1X Authenticator with a suitable
backend Authentication Server (typically
.Tn FreeRADIUS ) .
The
.Nm
utility
implements the authentication protocols that piggyback on top
of the normal IEEE 802.11 protocol mechanisms.
To use
.Nm
as an authenticator, the underlying device must support some
basic functionality such as the ability to set security information
in the 802.11 management frames.
Beware that not all devices have this support.
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility
is designed to be a
.Dq daemon
program that runs in the
background and acts as the backend component controlling
the wireless connection.
It supports separate frontend programs such as the
text-based frontend,
.Xr hostapd_cli 8 .
.Pp
The following arguments must be specified on the command line:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ar config-file
Use the settings in the specified configuration file; the name of
the specified wireless interface is contained in this file.
See
.Xr hostapd.conf 5
for a description of the configuration file syntax.
.Pp
Changes to the configuration file can be reloaded by sending a
.Dv SIGHUP
to the
.Nm
processor or with the
.Xr hostapd_cli 8
utility, using
.Dq Li "hostapd_cli reconfigure" .
.El
.Sh OPTIONS
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl d
Enable debugging messages.
If this option is supplied twice, more verbose messages are displayed.
.It Fl h
Show help text.
.It Fl t
Include timestamps in debugging output.
.It Fl v
Display version information on the terminal and exit.
.It Fl B
Detach from the controlling terminal and run as a daemon process
in the background.
.It Fl K
Include key information in debugging output.
.It Fl P Ar pidfile
Store PID in
.Ar pidfile .
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ath 4 ,
.Xr ipw 4 ,
.Xr iwi 4 ,
.Xr mwl 4 ,
.Xr ral 4 ,
.Xr rum 4 ,
.Xr run 4 ,
.Xr ural 4 ,
.Xr hostapd.conf 5 ,
.Xr hostapd_cli 8 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility first appeared in
.Fx 6.0 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
utility was written by
.An Jouni Malinen Aq Mt j@w1.fi .
This manual page is derived from the
.Pa README
file included in the
.Nm
distribution.