What is lj-wpaclient?

lj-wpaclient is a small library that lets programs written in Lua talk to your device's Wi-Fi management software. Specifically, it lets a Lua application scan for nearby Wi-Fi networks, listen for Wi-Fi-related events, and configure connections to networks, all without shelling out to command-line tools. Under the hood, it communicates with wpa_supplicant, which is the standard background service on Linux that handles Wi-Fi connections. The library provides a straightforward interface: you create a client, point it at your Wi-Fi interface, and then call functions to scan for networks, add a network with its name and password, or wait for events like a connection dropping. It mirrors the C-level API that wpa_supplicant exposes natively, but wraps it in something Lua developers can use directly. This project exists primarily to serve KOReader, an open-source e-book reader application popular on devices like Kindles and Kobos. Those e-readers run embedded Linux, and if you want the reading app to manage Wi-Fi directly (say, to download books or sync progress), you need a way to communicate with the system's Wi-Fi software from within the app. Rather than calling external commands and parsing their text output, this library talks to wpa_supplicant through its native control interface, which is cleaner and more reliable. The library requires LuaJIT, a just-in-time compiler for Lua, rather than standard Lua. It offers two layers: a higher-level one that handles common tasks like scanning and connecting, and a lower-level one that more closely mirrors the original C interface for anyone who needs finer control. It is a focused, single-purpose tool, not a general networking library, but a bridge between a Lua application and the system's Wi-Fi plumbing.