Get wireless SSID through shell script on Mac OS X

Question

Is there any way to get the SSID of the current wireless network through a shell script on Mac OS X?

Answer 1

The command

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport -I

will give you details about your current wireless network connection.

To get specifically the SSID, use this command:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport -I | awk -F: '/ SSID/{print $2}'

To retrieve SSID names that might have colons as well as spaces:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport -I  | awk -F' SSID: '  '/ SSID: / {print $2}'