How do I use the command line to check which WiFi network I am connected to?

Question

I'm doing a headless setup, where we use the Pis in field work (tracking movement of seals via camera in the Cape Cod area), and so we can only monitor it headless, without a separate display (to save on power).
In order to have the Pis get time, I need them to connect to my colleague's iPhones (which are operating as hotspots), and use ntpd to get time from the internet.
However, I haven't yet figured out what the command is to query the WiFi network name, to confirm that it is connected to the right network - is there one?

Your job sounds awesome! Where can I learn more about your work? — , Jan 19 '16 at 15:07
Our lab website: runstadlerlab.mit.edu :D
Personal website: ericmajinglong.com — ericmjl, Jan 19 '16 at 20:41

score 80 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 13 '16 at 00:59

80

iwgetid will give you the SSID

answered Jan 13 '16 at 00:59

Steve Robillard

34,687
17
103
109

score 32 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 13 '16 at 00:57

Try iwconfig:

user@host:~ $ iwconfig
wlan0     unassociated  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Sensitivity:0/0
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

score -1 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 23 '20 at 08:05

-1

You can use this code to check the IP assigned to the RPi:

t="$(ifconfig wlan0 | awk '/inet addr/{print substr($2,6)}')"
echo $t
w=${#t}
echo $w

edited Jul 23 '20 at 08:05

noam aghai

105
3

answered Nov 01 '18 at 07:48

Nikhil Parashar

99

It wasn't asked for the IP address. – Ingo Jul 22 '20 at 16:55
That code does not work on Raspian/RaspiOS Buster. The awk fails to match the output from ifconfig. – Dougie Jul 22 '20 at 21:06

How do I use the command line to check which WiFi network I am connected to?

3 Answers3