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+/**
+\page ctrl_iface_page Control interface
+
+hostapd implements a control interface that can be used by
+external programs to control the operations of the hostapd
+daemon and to get status information and event notifications. There is
+a small C library, in a form of a single C file, wpa_ctrl.c, that
+provides helper functions to facilitate the use of the control
+interface. External programs can link this file into them and then use
+the library functions documented in wpa_ctrl.h to interact with
+%wpa_supplicant. This library can also be used with C++. hostapd_cli.c
+is an example program using this library.
+
+There are multiple mechanisms for inter-process communication. For
+example, Linux version of hostapd is using UNIX domain sockets for the
+control interface. The use of the functions defined in wpa_ctrl.h can
+be used to hide the details of the used IPC from external programs.
+
+
+\section using_ctrl_iface Using the control interface
+
+External programs, e.g., a GUI or a configuration utility, that need to
+communicate with hostapd should link in wpa_ctrl.c. This
+allows them to use helper functions to open connection to the control
+interface with wpa_ctrl_open() and to send commands with
+wpa_ctrl_request().
+
+hostapd uses the control interface for two types of communication:
+commands and unsolicited event messages. Commands are a pair of
+messages, a request from the external program and a response from
+hostapd. These can be executed using wpa_ctrl_request().
+Unsolicited event messages are sent by hostapd to the control
+interface connection without specific request from the external program
+for receiving each message. However, the external program needs to
+attach to the control interface with wpa_ctrl_attach() to receive these
+unsolicited messages.
+
+If the control interface connection is used both for commands and
+unsolicited event messages, there is potential for receiving an
+unsolicited message between the command request and response.
+wpa_ctrl_request() caller will need to supply a callback, msg_cb,
+for processing these messages. Often it is easier to open two
+control interface connections by calling wpa_ctrl_open() twice and
+then use one of the connections for commands and the other one for
+unsolicited messages. This way command request/response pairs will
+not be broken by unsolicited messages. wpa_cli is an example of how
+to use only one connection for both purposes and wpa_gui demonstrates
+how to use two separate connections.
+
+Once the control interface connection is not needed anymore, it should
+be closed by calling wpa_ctrl_close(). If the connection was used for
+unsolicited event messages, it should be first detached by calling
+wpa_ctrl_detach().
+
+
+\section ctrl_iface_cmds Control interface commands
+
+Following commands can be used with wpa_ctrl_request():
+
+\subsection ctrl_iface_PING PING
+
+This command can be used to test whether hostapd is replying
+to the control interface commands. The expected reply is \c PONG if the
+connection is open and hostapd is processing commands.
+
+*/