iwgetid.8

This package contains the Wireless tools, used to manipulate the Wireless Extensions. The Wireless

.\" Guus Sliepen - 2001
.\" Completed and fixed up by Jean Tourrilhes - 2002-2003
.\" iwgetid.8
.\"
.TH IWGETID 8 "02 December 2003" "wireless-tools" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.\"
.\" NAME part
.\"
.SH NAME
iwgetid \- Report ESSID, NWID or AP/Cell Address of wireless network
.\"
.\" SYNOPSIS part
.\"
.SH SYNOPSIS
.BI "iwgetid " [interface] " [--raw] [--scheme] [--ap] [--freq]"
.br
.BI "                   [--mode] [--protocol] [--channel]
.br
.\"
.\" DESCRIPTION part
.\"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B iwgetid
is used to find out the NWID, ESSID or AP/Cell Address of the wireless
network that is currently used. The information reported is the same
as the one shown by
.BR iwconfig ", but " iwgetid
is easier to integrate in various scripts.
.br
By default,
.B iwgetid
will print the
.I ESSID
of the device, and if the device doesn't have any ESSID it will print
its
.IR NWID .
.br
The default formatting output is pretty-print.
.\"
.\" OPTIONS part
.\"
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B --raw
This option disables pretty-printing of the information. This option
is orthogonal to the other options (except
.BR --scheme ),
so with the appropriate combination of options you can print the raw
ESSID, AP Address or Mode.
.br
This format is ideal when storing the result of iwgetid as a
variable in
.I Shell
or
.I Perl
scripts or to pass the result as an argument on the command line of
.BR iwconfig .
.TP
.B --scheme
This option is similar to the previous one, it disables
pretty-printing of the information and removes all characters that are
not alphanumerics (like space, punctuation and control characters).
.br
The resulting output is a valid Pcmcia scheme identifier (that may be
used as an argument of the command
.BR "cardctl scheme" ).
This format is also ideal when using the result of iwgetid as a
selector in
.I Shell
or
.I Perl
scripts, or as a file name.
.TP
.B --ap
Display the MAC address of the Wireless
.I Access Point
or the
.IR Cell .
.TP
.B --freq
Display the current
.I frequency
or
.I channel
used by the interface.
.TP
.B --channel
Display the current
.I channel
used by the interface. The channel is determined using the current
frequency and the frequency list provided by the interface.
.TP
.B --mode
Display the current
.I mode
of the interface.
.TP
.B --protocol
Display the
.I protocol name
of the interface. This allows to identify all the cards that are
compatible with each other and accept the same type of configuration.
.br
This can also be used to
.I check Wireless Extension support
on the interface, as this is the only attribute that all drivers
supporting Wireless Extension are mandated to support.
.\"
.\" SEE ALSO part
.\"
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR iwconfig (8),
.BR ifconfig (8),
.BR iwspy (8),
.BR iwpriv (8).