NETCONF Client/Server Libraries

This project provides two Python implementations of NETCONF protocol:

1. netconf - A synchronous implementation using Paramiko for SSH
2. async_netconf - An asynchronous implementation using asyncssh

Both implementations provide client and server functionality following the NETCONF protocol.

Installation

This package uses modern Python packaging with pyproject.toml. You'll need Python 3.7 or higher.

From PyPI (not available yet)

# Install the synchronous version
pip install netconf

# Install with async support
pip install "netconf[async]"

From source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/choppsv1/netconf.git
cd netconf

# Install in development mode with all dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev,async]"

Development Dependencies

For development, install with the dev extra:

pip install -e ".[dev]"

This includes:

• Testing tools (pytest, pytest-cov, pytest-asyncio)
• Linting (pylint, yapf)
• Build tools (setuptools-scm, twine, wheel)

Features

Synchronous (netconf)

• Complete NETCONF 1.0 and 1.1 protocol support
• SSH transport via Paramiko
• Server and client implementations
• Thread-safe design
• XML-based RPCs and notifications

Asynchronous (async_netconf)

• Asyncio-based implementation
• SSH transport via asyncssh
• High-performance server and client
• Non-blocking I/O operations
• Compatible with Python's asyncio ecosystem

Command Line Tools

Both packages provide command-line clients:

# Synchronous client
netconf-client [options] <host> [<port>]

# Asynchronous client
async-netconf-client [options] <host> [<port>]

Examples

Synchronous Client

from netconf.client import SSHClient

with SSHClient("hostname") as client:
    # Get running config
    result = client.get_config()
    print(result)

Asynchronous Client

import asyncio
from async_netconf.client import SSHClient

async def main():
    async with SSHClient("hostname") as client:
        # Get running config
        result = await client.get_config()
        print(result)


asyncio.run(main())

Documentation

For detailed documentation, please refer to: http://netconf.readthedocs.io/

Development

To set up a development environment:

git clone https://github.com/choppsv1/netconf.git
cd netconf
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Run tests:

pytest

Package Structure

netconf (Synchronous)

• __main__ - Netconf CLI client utility
• base - Shared netconf support classes
• error - Netconf error classes
• client - Netconf client implementation
• server - Netconf server implementation
• util - Utility functions

async_netconf (Asynchronous)

• __main__ - Asynchronous netconf CLI client
• base - Async netconf support classes
• error - Async netconf error classes
• client - Async netconf client implementation
• server - Async netconf server implementation
• util - Async utility functions
• simple_client - Simplified async client interface

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.