ciscoconfparse 1.7.17

Parse, Audit, Query, Build, and Modify Cisco IOS-style and JunOS-style configs

ciscoconfparse

Introduction: What is ciscoconfparse?

Short answer: ciscoconfparse is a Python library that helps you quickly answer questions like these about your Cisco configurations:

• What interfaces are shutdown?
• Which interfaces are in trunk mode?
• What address and subnet mask is assigned to each interface?
• Which interfaces are missing a critical command?
• Is this configuration missing a standard config line?

It can help you:

• Audit existing router / switch / firewall / wlc configurations
• Modify existing configurations
• Build new configurations

Speaking generally, the library examines an IOS-style config and breaks it into a set of linked parent / child relationships. You can perform complex queries about these relationships.

Usage

The following code will parse a configuration stored in 'exampleswitch.conf' and select interfaces that are shutdown.

from ciscoconfparse import CiscoConfParse

parse = CiscoConfParse('exampleswitch.conf', syntax='ios')

for intf_obj in parse.find_objects_w_child('^interface', '^\s+shutdown'):
    print("Shutdown: " + intf_obj.text)

The next example will find the IP address assigned to interfaces.

from ciscoconfparse import CiscoConfParse

parse = CiscoConfParse('exampleswitch.conf', syntax='ios')

for intf_obj in parse.find_objects('^interface'):

    intf_name = intf_obj.re_match_typed('^interface\s+(\S.+?)$')

    # Search children of all interfaces for a regex match and return
    # the value matched in regex match group 1.  If there is no match,
    # return a default value: ''
    intf_ip_addr = intf_obj.re_match_iter_typed(
        r'ip\saddress\s(\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+)\s', result_type=str,
        group=1, default='')
    print("{0}: {1}".format(intf_name, intf_ip_addr))

Are there private copies of CiscoConfParse()?

Yes. Cisco Systems maintains their own copy of CiscoConfParse(). The terms of the GPLv3 license allow this as long as they don't distribute their modified private copy in binary form. Also refer to this GPLv3 License primer / GPLv3 101. Officially, modified copies of CiscoConfParse source-code must also be licensed as GPLv3.

Dear Cisco Systems: please consider porting your improvements back into the github ciscoconfparse repo.

Is this a tool, or is it artwork?

That depends on who you ask. Many companies use CiscoConfParse as part of their network engineering toolbox; others regard it as a form of artwork.

What if we don't use Cisco IOS?

Don't let that stop you.

As of CiscoConfParse 1.2.4, you can parse brace-delimited configurations into a Cisco IOS style (see Github Issue #17), which means that CiscoConfParse can parse these configurations:

• Juniper Networks Junos
• Palo Alto Networks Firewall configurations
• F5 Networks configurations

CiscoConfParse also handles anything that has a Cisco IOS style of configuration, which includes:

• Cisco IOS, Cisco Nexus, Cisco IOS-XR, Cisco IOS-XE, Aironet OS, Cisco ASA, Cisco CatOS
• Arista EOS
• Brocade
• HP Switches
• Force 10 Switches
• Dell PowerConnect Switches
• Extreme Networks
• Enterasys
• Screenos

Docs

• The latest copy of the docs are archived on the web
• There is also a CiscoConfParse Tutorial

Editing the Package

• git clone https://github.com/mpenning/ciscoconfparse
• cd ciscoconfparse
• git checkout -b develop
• Add / modify / delete on the develop branch
• make test
• If tests run clean, git commit all the pending changes on the develop branch
• (as required) Edit the version number in pyproject.toml
• git checkout main
• git merge develop
• make test
• make repo-push
• make pypi

Pre-requisites

The ciscoconfparse python package requires Python versions 3.7+ (note: Python version 3.7.0 has a bug - ref Github issue #117, but version 3.7.1 works); the OS should not matter.

Installation and Downloads

• Use poetry for Python3.x... :

  python -m pip install ciscoconfparse
  

If you're interested in the source, you can always pull from the github repo:

• Download from the github repo: :

    git clone git://github.com/mpenning/ciscoconfparse
    cd ciscoconfparse/
    python -m pip install .
  

Github Star History

Other Resources

• Dive into Python3 is a good way to learn Python
• Team CYMRU has a Secure IOS Template, which is especially useful for external-facing routers / switches
• Cisco's Guide to hardening IOS devices
• Center for Internet Security Benchmarks (An email address, cookies, and javascript are required)

Bug Tracker and Support

• Please report any suggestions, bug reports, or annoyances with a github bug report.
• If you're having problems with general python issues, consider searching for a solution on Stack Overflow. If you can't find a solution for your problem or need more help, you can ask on Stack Overflow or reddit/r/Python.
• If you're having problems with your Cisco devices, you can contact:
  • Cisco TAC
  • reddit/r/Cisco
  • reddit/r/networking
  • NetworkEngineering.se

Unit-Tests

The project's test workflow checks ciscoconfparse on Python versions 3.7 and higher, as well as a pypy JIT executable.

Click the image below for details; the current build status is:

Sphinx Documentation

Building the ciscoconfparse documentation tarball comes down to this one wierd trick:

• cd sphinx-doc/
• pip install -r ./requirements.txt; # install Sphinx dependencies
• pip install -r ../requirements.txt; # install ccp dependencies
• make html

License and Copyright

ciscoconfparse is licensed GPLv3

• Copyright (C) 2021-2023 David Michael Pennington
• Copyright (C) 2020-2021 David Michael Pennington at Cisco Systems (post-acquisition: Cisco acquired ThousandEyes)
• Copyright (C) 2019 David Michael Pennington at ThousandEyes
• Copyright (C) 2012-2019 David Michael Pennington at Samsung Data Services
• Copyright (C) 2011-2012 David Michael Pennington at Dell Computer Corp
• Copyright (C) 2007-2011 David Michael Pennington

The word "Cisco" is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems.

Author

ciscoconfparse was written by David Michael Pennington (mike [~at~] pennington [.dot.] net).