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<h1> The <tt>wpactrl</tt> library interface </h1>
<p>
<tt>wpactrl</tt> is a library designed to interface a client
with the <a href="https://w1.fi/wpa_supplicant/">wpa_supplicant</a>
program, in a smaller, cleaner, more user-friendly and more
packager-friendly way than the <tt>wpa_ctrl</tt> interface that
comes with the <a href="https://w1.fi/wpa_supplicant/">wpa_supplicant</a>
distribution.
</p>
<h2> Compiling </h2>
<ul>
<li> Use <tt>#include <bcnm/wpactrl.h></tt> </li>
</ul>
<h2> Linking </h2>
<ul>
<li> Make sure the bcnm libraries, as well as the skalibs
libraries, are visible in your library search path. </li>
<li> Link against <tt>-lwpactrl</tt> and <tt>-lskarnet</tt>.
Also add <tt>`cat $sysdeps/socket.lib $sysdeps/sysclock.lib`</tt>
to the end of your command line invoking the linker, in order
to be portable to libcs that put socket or time functions into
separate libraries.
(<tt>$sysdeps</tt> stands for your skalibs sysdeps directory.) </li>
</ul>
<h2> Programming </h2>
<p>
The <tt>bcnm/wpactrl.h</tt> header is the reference for the exact
function prototypes.
</p>
<h3> General usage </h3>
<p>
<tt>libwpactrl</tt> stores its information in a <tt>wpactrl_t</tt> structure.
Such a structure must be allocated (can be declared in the stack) and
initialized to WPACTRL_ZERO before use. The address of that <tt>wpactrl_t</tt>
structure is then used as a handle and given as an argument to all the
<tt>wpactrl_*</tt> function calls.
</p>
<h3> Connections </h3>
<p>
A <tt>wpactrl_t</tt> instance represents two connections to a <tt>wpa_supplicant</tt>
program: an <em>attached</em> one and a <em>detached</em> one. For proper operation,
it is important to regularly read the data from the <em>attached</em> connection. This is
achieved by calling the <tt>wpactrl_update()</tt> function whenever data is available
on the <em>attached</em> connection; this is notified by the connection's fd becoming
readable. The attached connection's fd can be obtained via the <tt>wpactrl_fd()</tt>
function. So, proper usage of a <tt>wpactrl_t</tt> instance involves an asynchronous
event loop.
</p>
<h3> Synchronous functions </h3>
<p>
The bulk of <tt>libwpactrl</tt> functions takes an extra <em>stamp</em> argument
at the end, of type
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/libstddjb/tai.html">tain_t</a>. This means
they are synchronous function calls, and the extra argument is there to ensure
those calls do not block forever.
</p>
<p>
<em>stamp</em> must be first initialized to an
accurate enough approximation of the current time, for instance via skalibs'
<tt>tain_now()</tt> function; it will then be automatically updated by the
libwpactrl function calls to always contain (an accurate enough approximation
of) the current time.
</p>
<p>
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/">skalibs</a> can keep track of the
timestamp for you, in the global <tt>STAMP</tt> variable. All <tt>libwpactrl</tt>
functions taking a <em>stamp</em> argument also have a
version with a name ending in <tt>_g</tt>, that does not take it and instead
assumes the <tt>STAMP</tt> variable always contains (an accurate
enough approximation of) the current time.
<p>
<p>
Those synchronous function calls normally return almost instantly: there should
be no blocking code path between the function call and its return. Nevertheless,
since they involve communication with a complex <tt>wpa_supplicant</tt> process,
it's impossible to guarantee that they will never block, so the use of the
<em>stamp</em> argument, plus a timeout given at <tt>wpactrl_start</tt> time,
ensures there is a cap on the amount of time they block.
</p>
<h3> Starting and stopping a session </h3>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_start (wpactrl_t *a, char const *path, unsigned int timeout, tain_t *stamp) </code> <br />
Starts a session with a <tt>wpa_supplicant</tt> instance listening on a Unix socket
at <em>path</em>. <em>a</em> is a handle that must be initialized to
WPACTRL_ZERO before the call to <tt>wpactrl_start</tt>, and that must then
be passed to every <tt>wpactrl_*</tt> call in the session.
The function returns 1 if it succeeds, or 0 (and sets errno) if
it fails. The <em>timeout</em> argument is interpreted as milliseconds:
it sets the number of milliseconds for which every subsequent synchronous call
to wpa_supplicant in the current session will be willing to wait. If a call
to wpa_supplicant takes longer than <em>timeout</em> milliseconds, the call
will immediately be aborted.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_end (wpactrl_t *a) </code> <br />
Ends the session, freeing all used resources. It is important
to use this function even if your process exits right away,
because <tt>wpactrl_end()</tt> will also delete entries in
the filesystem.
</p>
<h3> Low-level command sending </h3>
<p>
<code> ssize_t wpactrl_query (wpactrl_t *a, char const *q, char *ans, size_t anslen, tain_t *stamp) </code> <br />
Sends the query <em>q</em> to the connected instance
of wpa_supplicant, and reads its answer into the buffer pointed to by
<em>ans</em>. Returns -1 in case of failure, or the number of bytes of
the answer in case of success. Returns -1 with errno set to EMSGSIZE if
the answer is bigger than <em>anslen</em> bytes.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_querysa (wpactrl_t *a, char const *q, stralloc *sa, tain_t *stamp) </code> <br />
Sends the query <em>q</em> to the connected instance
of wpa_supplicant, and reads its answer into the
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/libstddjb/stralloc.html">stralloc</a>
pointed to by <em>sa</em>. Returns 1 if it succeeds and 0 if it fails.
</p>
<p>
<code> wparesponse_t wpactrl_command (wpactrl_t *a, char const *q, tain_t *stamp) </code> <br />
Sends the command <em>q</em> to the connected instance
of wpa_supplicant, and returns its answer under the form of a
<tt>wparesponse_t</tt>, which is an enumeration defined in the
<tt>bcnm/wpactrl.h</tt> header. This function is meant to be used
with commands returning a well-known value, such as <tt>RECONFIGURE</tt>
(returning <tt>OK</tt> or <tt>FAIL</tt>) or <tt>PING</tt>
(returning <tt>PONG</tt>). The <tt>wparesponse_t</tt> enumeration
type lists all the possible values for the function's return code.
</p>
<h3> Reading from the attached (asynchronous) connection </h3>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_update (wpactrl_t *a) </code> <br />
Reads unsolicited messages from wpa_supplicant. If the messages
are whitelisted, it keeps them, otherwise it discards them.
The function returns the number of messages that have been read,
or -1 in case of failure. A positive number does not mean that
all pending messages have been read: there is a cap on the
number of messages that can be consecutively read, to prevent
a spamming wpa_supplicant from monopolizing your program.
</p>
<p>
<code> char *wpactrl_msg (wpactrl_t *a) </code> <br />
Returns a pointer to the first unsolicited message from
wpa_supplicant that has been read by <tt>wpactrl_update()</tt> but
has not been acknowledged yet. If there's no such message,
returns NULL.
</p>
<p>
<code> void wpactrl_ackmsg (wpactrl_t *a) </code> <br />
Acknowledges reading of one unsolicited message from wpa_supplicant.
The next invocation of <tt>wpactrl_msg()</tt> will point to the next
one.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_filter_add (wpactrl_t *a, char const *prefix) </code> <br />
Adds <em>prefix</em> to the whitelist. Unsolicited messages from
wpa_supplicant will be stored and made available to the application
if they start with <tt><</tt><em>priority</em><tt>></tt><em>prefix</em>,
<em>priority</em> being a single nonzero digit. If the filter is
activated (which is the default), then only messages matching prefixes
registered via <tt>wpactrl_filter_add()</tt> will be stored, and all
other messages will be discarded. The function returns
1 if it succeeds and 0 if it fails.
</p>
<p>
<code> void wpactrl_filter_remove (wpactrl_t *a, char const *prefix) </code> <br />
Removes <em>prefix</em> from the whitelist.
</p>
<p>
<code> void wpactrl_filter_activate (wpactrl_t *a) </code> <br />
Activates the message filter. Unsolicited messages from
wpa_supplicant will be discarded unless they are explicitly
whitelisted by a call to <tt>wpactrl_filter_add()</tt>. This
is the default.
</p>
<p>
<code> void wpactrl_filter_deactivate (wpactrl_t *a) </code> <br />
Dectivates the message filter. All the unsolicited messages from
wpa_supplicant will be stored and made available to the
application.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_filter_match (wpactrl_t const *a, char const *s, size_t len) </code> <br />
Returns 1 if the string <em>s</em> of size <em>len</em> matches one of the
registered filters, and 0 otherwise.
</p>
<h3> Helper functions for parsing answers from wpa_supplicant </h3>
<p>
<code> size_t wpactrl_bssid_scan (char const *s, char *bssid) </code> <br />
Parses a BSSID of the form <em>a:b:c:d:e:f</em> in string <em>s</em>
and writes it as an array of 6 bytes pointed to by <em>bssid</em>.
The string "any" is specifically recognized and yields a <em>bssid</em>
of 6 zero bytes. The function returns the number of characters eaten
in <em>s</em>, or 0 if it fails to recognize a BSSID.
</p>
<p>
<code> size_t wpactrl_flags_scan (char const *s, stralloc *sa) </code> <br />
Parses a wpa_supplicant "flags" field in the string <em>s</em>
and appends them to the
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/libstddjb/stralloc.html">stralloc</a>
pointed to by <em>sa</em>. The flags are written without their
surrounding square brackets, and every flag is terminated by a null
byte.
</p>
<p>
<code> unsigned int wpactrl_env_parse (char *s, size_t len) </code> <br />
Replaces newlines with null bytes in the string <em>s</em> of length <em>len</em>.
Returns the number of replaced newlines.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_scan_parse (char const *s, size_t len, genalloc *ga, stralloc *storage) </code> <br />
Parses the string <em>s</em> of length <em>len</em>, expecting it to be
wpa_supplicant's response to a SCAN_RESULTS command. The result is a series of
<tt>wpactrl_scanres_t</tt> structures, appended to the
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/libstddjb/genalloc.html">genalloc</a>
pointed to by <em>ga</em>, and variable length data is appended to the
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/libstddjb/stralloc.html">stralloc</a>
pointed to by <em>storage</em>.
The <tt>ssid_start</tt> and <tt>flags_start</tt> fields of a
<tt>wpactrl_scanres_t</tt> are indices pointing into the <em>storage→s</em>
string.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_networks_parse (char const *s, size_t len, genalloc *ga, stralloc *storage) </code> <br />
Parses the string <em>s</em> of length <em>len</em>, expecting it to be
wpa_supplicant's response to a LIST_NETWORKS command. The result is a series of
<tt>wpactrl_networks_t</tt> structures, appended to the
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/libstddjb/genalloc.html">genalloc</a>
pointed to by <em>ga</em>, and variable length data is appended to the
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/libstddjb/stralloc.html">stralloc</a>
pointed to by <em>storage</em>.
The <tt>ssid_start</tt> and <tt>flags_start</tt> fields of a
<tt>wpactrl_networks_t</tt> are indices pointing into the <em>storage→s</em>
string.
</p>
<p>
<code> void wpactrl_xchg_cbres_free (wpactrl_xchg_cbres_t *res) </code> <br />
Frees the heap memory used by the object pointed to by <em>res</em>.
</p>
<h3> User functions for common calls to wpa_supplicant </h3>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_addnetwork (wpactrl_t *a, uint32_t *id, tain_t *stamp) </code> </br>
Tells wpa_supplicant to create a new network. If it fails, returns 0. If it
succeeds, stores the new network id in <em>*id</em> and returns 1.
</p>
<p>
<code> wparesponse_t wpactrl_removenetwork (wpactrl_t *a, uint32_t id, tain_t *stamp) </code> </br>
Tells wpa_supplicant to remove the network with id <em>id</em>. Returns the
response code of wpa_supplicant: WPA_OK on success, WPA_FAIL or something
else on failure.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_findnetwork (wpactrl_t *a, char const *ssid, uint32_t *id, tain_t *stamp) </code> </br>
Finds the network id (as seen by wpa_supplicant) of the network with ssid <em>ssid</em>.
Stores it into <em>*id</em> if found, and returns 1. Returns 0 if not found;
returns -1 (and sets errno) if an error occurs.
</p>
<p>
<code> wparesponse_t wpactrl_setnetworkoption (wpactrl_t *a, uint32_t id, char const *var, char const *val, tain_t *stamp) </code> </br>
Sets parameter <em>var</em> to value <em>val</em> for network <em>id</em>.
Returns the response code of wpa_supplicant, most likely WPA_OK or WPA_FAIL.
</p>
<p>
<code> wparesponse_t wpactrl_selectnetwork (wpactrl_t *a, uint32_t id, tain_t *stamp) </code> </br>
Selects network <em>id</em> to associate with.
Returns the response code of wpa_supplicant, most likely WPA_OK or WPA_FAIL.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_associate (wpactrl_t *, char const *ssid, char const *psk, tain_t *stamp) </code> </br>
Tells wpa_supplicant to associate with the wifi network having the ssid <em>ssid</em>,
creating it if it's not already known by wpa_supplicant. If <em>psk</em> is NULL,
the network will be assumed open and authentication will use a NONE protocol.
If <em>psk</em> is not NULL, the network authentication will be assumed using
WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK, and <em>psk</em> will be sent as pre-shared key.
The function returns 1 on success, or 0 if something went wrong.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_startscan (wpactrl_t *a, wpactrl_xchg_t *dt, wpactrl_xchg_cbres_t *res, tain_t const *limit, tain_t *stamp) </code> </br>
Asks wpa_supplicant to start a scan. Sets up the <tt>wpactrl_xchg_t</tt>
structure pointed to by <em>dt</em> so it can be used in an asynchronous
event loop to check for availability of the scan results (see below).
<em>limit</em> is an absolute deadline after which the scan should be
considered failed: if the current time goes over <em>limit</em>, then
<tt>wpactrl_xchg_timeout()</tt> will report a timeout on <em>item</em>.
But if <tt>wpactrl_xchg_event()</tt> reports that an event occurs on
<em>item</em>, instead, the results will be available in the
<tt>wpactrl_xchg_cbres_t</tt> structure pointed to by <em>res</em>:
<em>res→parsed</em> will be a
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/libstddjb/genalloc.html">genalloc</a>
made of <tt>wpactrl_scanres_t</tt> objects, constructed by the
<tt>wpactrl_scan_parse()</tt> function, and <em>res→storage</em> will
be the associated storage.
<tt>wpactrl_startscan()</tt> returns 0 (and sets errno) if an error
occurs, and 1 if the scan is properly started.
</p>
<h3> Functions to use within an asynchronous event loop </h3>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_xchg_init (wpactrl_xchg_t *dt, wpactrl_xchgitem_t const *tab, unsigned int tablen, tain_t const *limit, void *aux) </code> </br>
Initializes the <tt>wpactrl_xchg_t</tt> structure pointed to by <em>dt</em>.
Returns 0 on failure and 1 on success.
</p>
<p>
A <tt>wpactrl_xchg_t</tt> contains the state for an asynchronous call to
wpa_supplicant (i.e. a command has been sent and we're now waiting on
reception of an event on the attached interface). It is initialized with
the <em>tab</em>, <em>n</em> and <em>aux</em> values.
</p>
<p>
<em>aux</em> is a user-provided pointer used to pass external data
to the function callbacks defined in <em>tab</em>.
</p>
<p>
<em>tab</em> points to <em>tablen</em> caller-provided objects of type <tt>wpactrl_xchgitem_t</tt>.
This type is a struct containing the following members:
</p>
<ul>
<li> <tt>char const *filter</tt> : a string to watch for in unsolicited messages
sent by wpa_supplicant to the attached interface. When this string is received,
it means the call can proceed. For instance, when a scan has been requested,
the string to watch is <tt>CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS</tt>. </li>
<li> <tt>int *cb (wpactrl_t *a, char const *msg, size_t msglen, void *aux, tain_t *stamp)</tt> :
A pointer to a function that will be run as a callback when a message matching the <em>filter</em>
field is received. It will be called with the following arguments:
<ul>
<li> <em>a</em> : the connection handle </li>
<li> <em>msg</em> : the message from wpa_supplicant </li>
<li> <em>msglen</em> : the size of the message </li>
<li> <em>aux</em> : the <em>aux</em> pointer provided to this <tt>wpactrl_xchg_init()</tt> call </li>
<li> <em>stamp</em> : a pointer to the current time (at the time of the callback) </li>
</ul> </li>
</ul>
<p>
The <em>*cb</em> function must return 0 (and set errno) if it fails, or a
positive integer if it succeeds. The objects in <em>tab</em> will be used
sequentially: first a message with <em>dt→tab[0].filter</em> will
be waited for, then <em>*dt→tab[0].cb</em> will be run; if it
succeeds, a message with <em>dt→tab[1].filter</em> will be waited for,
and so on. The last function, <em>*dt→tab[tablen-1].cb</em>, should
write the final result of the whole to a place accessible by the
user; this is one of the uses for the <em>aux</em> pointer.
</p>
<p>
<em>limit</em> is a deadline: an absolute date after which the whole series of
exchanges with wpa_supplicant will stop and be considered failed, i.e.
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/libstddjb/iopause.html">iopause</a>
will report a timeout and <tt>wpactrl_xchg_timeout()</tt> called on
<em>dt</em> will return 1.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_xchg_start (wpactrl_t *a, wpactrl_xchg_t *dt) </code> <br />
Starts the exchange defined in the object pointed to by <em>dt</em>, with the
wpa_supplicant instance defined by the handle <em>a</em>. Returns 1 if it
succeeds and 0 if it fails.
</p>
<p>
<code> void wpactrl_xchg_computedeadline (wpactrl_xchg_t const *dt, tain_t *deadline) </code> <br />
Updates the deadline pointed to by <em>deadline</em>, destined to be used in the next
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/libstddjb/iopause.html">iopause</a> invocation,
with the one contained in <em>*dt</em>. Namely: if the deadline defined by <em>*dt</em>
is earlier than <em>*deadline</em>, replaces the latter with the former.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_xchg_timeout (wpactrl_t *a, wpactrl_xchg_t *dt, tain_t const *stamp) </code> <br />
To be called after an <tt>iopause</tt> invocation that returned 0.
Tests whether the exchange
defined by <em>dt</em> has timed out. Returns 1 (and cleans up the relevant
filters in <em>a</em> if it is the case, and 0 otherwise. <em>stamp</em> must
point to the current time.
</p>
<p>
<code> int wpactrl_xchg_event (wpactrl_t *a, wpactrl_xchg_t *dt, tain_t *stamp) </code> <br />
To be called after an <tt>iopause</tt> invocation that returned a positive number, and
after a <tt>wpactrl_update(<em>a</em>)</tt> invocation.
Advances the exchange described in <em>*dt</em>, if applicable: if a message arrived
that matches the current filter set up by <em>*dt</em>, executes the corresponding
callback, then sets up the next filter. <em>stamp</em> must point to the current
time.
</p>
<p>
The function returns a negative number if an error occurred and the exchange needs
to be cancelled and freed; 0 if the exchange isn't over yet; and a positive number
if the exchange completed successfully. Namely:
</p>
<ul>
<li> -2: a callback was run and returned an error. </li>
<li> -1: an error occurred during execution of <tt>wpactrl_xchg_event()</tt>.
<li> 0: either the message from wpa_supplicant that <em>*dt</em> is expecting
has not arrived yet, or it has arrived, the relevant callback has been run and
has succeeded, and it was not the last part of the exchange - <em>*dt</em> is
now waiting for another message. </li>
<li> 1: the exchange completed successfully. The last callback should have
written the results to the auxiliary pointer. <em>dt</em> can now be ignored. </li>
<li> 2: the exchange already completed in a previous invocation of
<tt>wpactrl_xchg_event()</tt>. It's still a success, but likely signals a programming
error. </li>
</ul>
<h2> A working example </h2>
<p>
The provided
<a href="bcnm-wpactrl-scan.c.txt">bcnm-wpactrl-scan.c</a>
file is an example on how to program with
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/skalibs/">skalibs</a> and libwpactrl. It connects to
a wpa_supplicant instance (it takes the path to the Unix socket to wpa_supplicant as
an argument), requests a scan, waits for the scan results with a timeout of 10
seconds, and prints the results as is on its standard output.
</p>
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