Airport For Mac: A Guide To Getting Started

The airport command is a little-known command line wireless utility for Mac that allows you to view, configure and troubleshoot your Mac's wireless connection. It is hidden from casual Mac users, but it is very useful for more advanced Mac users who want to have full control over their Wi-Fi hardware directly from the command line. The airport command exists in nearly all versions of Mac OS X, even modern versions that stopped calling wireless networking 'airport' and refer to it as Wi-Fi.

How to access the airport tool

The airport command line utility for Mac is a hidden tool that allows you to view, configure and troubleshoot your Mac's wireless connection. It's available in nearly all versions of Mac OS X, even modern versions that refer to wireless networking as 'Wi-Fi'.

To access the airport tool, you'll first need to create a symbolic link to the airport command. This is because the airport command is situated in an inconvenient location with a deep path, so creating a symbolic link makes it easier to use. Here's how to create a symbolic link:

For MacOS Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, and newer MacOS releases:

Sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/local/bin/airport

For Mac OS X High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Mavericks, and earlier:

Sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/sbin/airport

Alternatively, you can use the following commands, which do the same thing but are split into two commands:

For Mac OS Catalina, Mojave, and newer macOS versions:

$ cd /usr/local/bin/

$ sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport

Once you've created the symbolic link, you can access the airport tool by opening the Terminal app on your Mac. The airport tool can be used for various networking tasks, such as viewing your wireless connection information and disconnecting from a network.

How to use the airport tool for networking tasks

The airport command line wireless utility for Mac is a hidden tool that allows you to view, configure, and troubleshoot your Mac’s wireless connection. It is particularly useful for advanced Mac users who want to have full control over their Wi-Fi hardware directly from the command line in Mac OS X.

To access the airport tool, you will first need to create a symbolic link to the airport command, as it is situated in an inconvenient location with a deep path. Creating a symbolic link to the airport is easy and can be done in the Terminal by typing the following:

For MacOS Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, and newer MacOS releases:

Sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/local/bin/airport

For Mac OS X High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Mavericks, and earlier:

Sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/sbin/airport

Alternatively, you can use the following commands, which do the same thing but are split into two commands:

For Mac OS Catalina, Mojave, and newer macOS versions:

$ cd /usr/local/bin/

$ sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport

Once you have created the symbolic link, you can use the airport tool for various networking tasks, such as viewing your wireless connection, configuring your Wi-Fi settings, and troubleshooting any connection issues.

For example, you can use the airport tool to disassociate from a network. This will disconnect your Mac from the selected network and lose any associations with it, but it will not turn off general Wi-Fi. To do this, you can use the following command:

Airport -z

How to create a symbolic link to the airport command

The airport command is a command line wireless utility for Mac. It allows you to view, configure, and troubleshoot your Mac’s wireless connection, entirely from the Terminal of MacOS and Mac OS X.

The airport command is situated in an inconvenient location with a deep path. To make it easier to use, you can create a symbolic link to the airport command. This is very easy to do. In the Terminal, type the following:

For MacOS Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, and newer MacOS releases:

Bash

Sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/local/bin/airport

For Mac OS X High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Mavericks, and earlier:

Bash

Sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/sbin/airport

Alternatively, you can use the following commands, which do the same thing but are split into two commands:

For Mac OS Catalina, Mojave, and newer macOS versions:

Bash

$ cd /usr/local/bin/

$ sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport

How to use the airport command in the Terminal of MacOS Mojave

The airport command is a little-known command line wireless utility for Mac. It allows you to view, configure, and troubleshoot your Mac’s wireless connection entirely from the Terminal of MacOS and Mac OS X.

To use the airport command in the Terminal of MacOS Mojave, first create a symbolic link to the airport command. This is because the airport command is situated in an inconvenient location with a deep path, and creating a symbolic link helps for quick usage. In the Terminal, type the following:

Sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/local/bin/airport

Alternatively, you can use the following (it does the same thing, just split into two commands):

$ cd /usr/local/bin/

$ sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport

Once you have created the symbolic link, you can use the airport command for various networking tasks, such as viewing your wireless connection, configuring your Wi-Fi settings, and troubleshooting connection issues.

How to control your Mac's wireless card from the command line

The airport command line wireless utility for Mac allows you to view, configure, and troubleshoot your Mac’s wireless connection, entirely from the Terminal of MacOS and Mac OS X. This command has a help file but is otherwise undocumented, and judging by the obscure location of the command, Apple probably didn’t think it would be too useful for the average Mac user. However, the hidden command line airport tool is very useful indeed, particularly for more advanced Mac users who want to have full control over their wi-fi hardware directly from the command line in Mac OS X.

To use the airport command, you will first need to create a symbolic link to it, because it is situated in an inconvenient location with a deep path. Creating a symbolic link to airport is very easy, in the Terminal type the following:

For MacOS Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, and newer MacOS releases:

Sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/local/bin/airport

For Mac OS X High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Mavericks, and earlier:

Sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/sbin/airport

The above may be a bit hard to read on some browsers, so alternatively you can use the following (it does the same thing, just split into two commands):

For Mac OS Catalina, Mojave, and newer macOS versions:

$ cd /usr/local/bin/

$ sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport

The airport command continues to work in MacOS and Sierra, if you are having difficulties with the soft link you can also add an alias to the .bash_profile like so:

Alias airport='/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport'

Frequently asked questions