/usr/local/sbin/wpa_supplicant: invalid option -- '-' wpa_supplicant v2.12-hostap_2_12 Copyright (c) 2003-2026, Jouni Malinen and contributors This software may be distributed under the terms of the BSD license. See README for more details. This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.openssl.org/) usage: wpa_supplicant [-BddhKLqqstuvWy] [-P] [-g] \ [-G] \ [-i] -c [-C] [-D] [-p] \ [-b] [-e] \ [-o] [-O] \ [-N -i -c [-C] [-D] \ [-m] \ [-p] [-b] [-I] ...] drivers: nl80211 = Linux nl80211/cfg80211 wired = Wired Ethernet driver options: -b = optional bridge interface name -B = run daemon in the background -c = Configuration file -C = ctrl_interface parameter (only used if -c is not) -d = increase debugging verbosity (-dd even more) -D = driver name (can be multiple drivers: nl80211,wext) -e = entropy file -g = global ctrl_interface -G = global ctrl_interface group -h = show this help text -i = interface name -I = additional configuration file -K = include keys (passwords, etc.) in debug output -L = show license (BSD) -m = Configuration file for the P2P Device interface -N = start describing new interface -o = override driver parameter for new interfaces -O = override ctrl_interface parameter for new interfaces -p = driver parameters -P = PID file -q = decrease debugging verbosity (-qq even less) -s = log output to syslog instead of stdout -t = include timestamp in debug messages -u = enable DBus control interface -v = show version -W = wait for a control interface monitor before starting -y = show configuration parsing details in debug log example: wpa_supplicant -Dnl80211 -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf If run without specifying a network interface or control interface, a configuration file is parsed without starting any operation. This can be used to check whether a configuration file has valid contents.