Ifup and ifdown tools

In Linux, network device configuration is usually specified in /etc/network/interfaces. This allows the usage of the tools ifup and ifdown. Wired as well as wireless interfaces can be configured in the same file.

To configure the owl0 interface to use the WPA Supplicant, a particular wpa_supplicant.conf file and specific IP settings the following entry can be added to /etc/network/interfaces:

iface owl0 inet dhcp
    wpa-driver wext
    wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Now, when the owl0 interface is brought up using ifup owl0, the WPA Supplicant will be started with the specified configuration file and as soon as a connection is established, an IP address will be assigned using DHCP.

Note that Wireless Tools can also be invoked through ifup and ifdown, if declared in /etc/network/interfaces. See the manual pages for ifup, ifdown and interfaces for more information.