---
name: "hostapd"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "hostapd"
version: "2.12-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/hostapd"
---

# hostapd(8)

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

## NAME

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

## SYNOPSIS

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

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the **hostapd** daemon.

**hostapd** is a user space daemon for access point and authentication servers. It implements IEEE 802.11 access point management, IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP Authenticators and RADIUS authentication server. The current version supports Linux (Host AP, mac80211-based drivers) and FreeBSD (net80211).

**hostapd** is designed to be a "daemon" program that runs in the background and acts as the backend component controlling authentication. **hostapd** supports separate frontend programs and an example text-based frontend, **hostapd\_cli**, is included with **hostapd**.

## OPTIONS

A summary of options is included below. For a complete description, run **hostapd** from the command line.

- **-h**

  Show usage.

- **-d**

  Show more debug messages.

- **-dd**

  Show even more debug messages.

- **-B**

  Run daemon in the background.

- **-P \<PID file\>**

  Path to PID file.

- **-K**

  Include key data in debug messages.

- **-t**

  Include timestamps in some debug messages.

- **-v**

  Show hostapd version.

## SEE ALSO

[**hostapd\_cli**(1)](/hostapd_cli/1.md).

## AUTHOR

hostapd was written by Jouni Malinen \<j@w1.fi\>.

This manual page was written by Faidon Liambotis \<faidon@cube.gr\>, for the Debian project (but may be used by others).