finsy 0.18.0

P4Runtime Client Library

Finsy P4Runtime Controller Library

Finsy is a P4Runtime controller library written in Python using asyncio. Finsy includes support for gNMI.

Check out the examples directory for some demonstration programs.

Installation

Finsy requires Python 3.10 or later. To install the latest version, type pip install finsy.

P4Runtime Scripts

With Finsy, you can write a Python script that reads/writes P4Runtime entities for a single switch.

Here is a complete example that retrieves the P4Info from a switch:

import finsy as fy

async def main():
    async with fy.Switch("sw1", "127.0.0.1:50001") as sw1:
        # Print out a description of the switch's P4Info, if one is configured.
        print(sw1.p4info)

fy.run(main())

Here is another example that prints out all non-default table entries.

import finsy as fy

async def main():
    async with fy.Switch("sw1", "127.0.0.1:50001") as sw1:
        # Do a wildcard read for table entries.
        async for entry in sw1.read(fy.P4TableEntry()):
            print(entry)

fy.run(main())

P4Runtime Controller

You can also write a P4Runtime controller that manages multiple switches independently. Your controller can react to events from the Switch by changing the contents of P4 tables.

Each switch is managed by an async ready_handler function. Your ready_handler function can read or update various P4Runtime entities in the switch. It can also create tasks to listen for packets or digests.

When you write P4Runtime updates to the switch, you use a unary operator (+, -, ~) to specify the operation: INSERT (+), DELETE (-) or MODIFY (~).

import finsy as fy

async def ready_handler(sw: fy.Switch):
    await sw.delete_all()
    await sw.write(
        [
            # Insert (+) multicast group with ports 1, 2, 3 and CONTROLLER.
            +fy.P4MulticastGroupEntry(1, replicas=[1, 2, 3, 255]),
            # Modify (~) default table entry to flood all unmatched packets.
            ~fy.P4TableEntry(
                "ipv4",
                action=fy.P4TableAction("flood"),
                is_default_action=True,
            ),
        ]
    )

    async for packet in sw.read_packets():
        print(f"{sw.name}: {packet}")

Use the SwitchOptions class to specify each switch's settings, including the p4info/p4blob and ready_handler. Use the Controller class to drive multiple switch connections. Each switch will call back into your ready_handler function after the P4Runtime connection is established.

from pathlib import Path

options = fy.SwitchOptions(
    p4info=Path("hello.p4info.txt"),
    p4blob=Path("hello.json"),
    ready_handler=ready_handler,
)

controller = fy.Controller([
    fy.Switch("sw1", "127.0.0.1:50001", options),
    fy.Switch("sw2", "127.0.0.1:50002", options),
    fy.Switch("sw3", "127.0.0.1:50003", options),
])

fy.run(controller.run())

Your ready_handler can spawn concurrent tasks with the Switch.create_task method. Tasks created this way will have their lifetimes managed by the switch object.

If the switch disconnects or its role changes to backup, the task running your ready_handler (and any tasks it spawned) will be cancelled and the ready_handler will begin again.

For more examples, see the examples directory.

Development and Testing

Perform these steps to set up your local environment for Finsy development, or try the codespace. Finsy requires Python 3.10 or later. If poetry is not installed, follow these directions to install it.

Clone and Prepare a Virtual Environment

The poetry install command installs all development dependencies into the virtual environment (venv).

$ git clone https://github.com/byllyfish/finsy.git
$ cd finsy
$ python3 -m venv .venv
$ poetry install

Run Unit Tests

When you run pytest from the top level of the repository, you will run the unit tests.

$ poetry run pytest

Run Integration Tests

When you run pytest from within the examples directory, you will run the integration tests instead of the unit tests. The integration tests run the example programs against a Mininet network. Docker or podman are required.

$ cd examples
$ poetry run pytest

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