Introduction

Overview

ciscoconfparse is similar to an advanced grep and diff API for python; it should be used with text network configuration files (such as those from Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto, etc). It is the first generation of ciscoconfparse, which was the primary development vehicle from 2007 until 2023.

As of 2023, ciscoconfparse2 is released and you should use that unless you have a good reason to stick with the original ciscoconfparse.

ciscoconfparse can:

  • Audit existing router / switch / firewall / wlc configurations against a text configuration template

  • Retrieve portions of the configuration

  • Modify existing configurations

  • Build new configurations

The library examines an IOS-style config and breaks it into a set of linked parent / child relationships; each configuration line is stored in a different IOSCfgLine object.

ciscoconfparse overview

Figure 1, An Example of Parent-line / Child-line relationships

Then you issue queries against these relationships using a familiar family syntax model. Queries can either be in the form of a simple string, or you can use regular expressions. The API provides powerful query tools, including the ability to find all parents that have or do not have children matching a certain template.

The package also provides a set of methods to query and manipulate the IOSCfgLine objects themselves. This gives you a flexible mechanism to build your own custom queries, because the IOSCfgLine objects store all the parent / child hierarchy in them.









What is ciscoconfparse good for?

After several network evolutions, you may have a tangled mess of conflicting or misconfigured network devices. Misconfigurations of proxy-arp, static routes, FHRP timers, routing protocols, duplicated subnets, cdp, console passwords, or aaa schemes have a measurable affect on up time and beg for a tool to audit them. However, manually scrubbing configurations is a long and error-prone process.

Audits aren’t the only use for ciscoconfparse. Let’s suppose you are working on a design and need a list of dot1q trunks on a switch with more than 400 interfaces. You can’t grep for them because you need the interface names of layer2 trunks; the interface name is stored on one line, and the trunk configuration is stored somewhere below the interface name. With ciscoconfparse, it’s really this easy…

>>> from ciscoconfparse import CiscoConfParse
>>> parse = CiscoConfParse('/tftpboot/largeConfig.conf', syntax='ios', factory=False)
>>>
>>> # Find parent interfaces that are configured with 'switchport trunk'
>>> dot1q_trunks = parse.find_parent_objects("^interface", "switchport trunk")
>>> for intf in dot1q_trunks:
...     print(intf)
<IOSCfgLine # 217 'interface FastEthernet1/1'>
<IOSCfgLine # 237 'interface FastEthernet1/2'>
...
>>>

This example:

  • Imports CiscoConfParse

  • Searches a Cisco IOS configuration file stored in /tftpboot/largeConfig.conf

    • Use the default ‘ios’ syntax for the configuration file

    • Use the default ‘factory’ setting, which is disabled

  • Search for configuration lines which have:

    • The parent beginning with interface (and anything else on the config line); ^ is a special character that requests to anchor the string at the beginning of the config line.

    • A child of that parent configured with switchport trunk (and anything else on the config line)

The search found two configuration lines.

We don’t have Ciscos

Don’t let that stop you. CiscoConfParse parses 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

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 understands these configurations too:

  • Juniper Networks Junos, and Screenos

  • Palo Alto Networks Firewall configurations

  • F5 Networks configurations

Quotes

These are a few selected public mentions about CiscoConfParse; I usually try not to share private emails without asking, thus the quotes aren’t long at this time.



CiscoConfParse Github issue #13



Reddit comment - 20150328







What’s new in version 1.0.0

I wrote ciscoconfparse in 2007 as literally my first Python project; through the years, my understanding of Python improved, and I also found many missing features along the way. Some of these features, like changing a configuration after it was parsed, required non-trivial changes to the whole project.

Starting in version 0.9, I initiated a major rewrite; several important changes were made:

  • Python3.x compatibility; Python2.4 deprecation

  • Major improvement in config parsing speed

  • Much better unit-test coverage

  • Too many bug fixes to count

  • New feature - ciscoconfparse inserts, deletes and appends config lines

  • Rearchitected the library, with an eye towards more future improvements

  • Revisions in scripting flow. All users are encouraged to use IOSCfgLine() objects whenever possible. Typically, you’ll start by matching them with find_objects(). Working directly with IOSCfgLine() objects makes your scripts less complicated and it also makes them faster than using legacy ciscoconfparse syntax.