CML Utilties

for Cisco Modeling Labs / VIRL2

This suite of Rust crates provides CLI-based utilities to make managing and automating your CML instance easier.

Crates

• cml - Provides a type-safe interface to CML's REST API
  • Still a Work-in-progress, tested PRs welcome for new endpoints
    • The built-in documentation explorer cannot be trusted. Always use real API output when creating type definitions.
  • WIP: bash commandline completion for REST endpoints
• cmlrest - A command-line interface to CML's REST API
  • Supports outputting human-formatted, or JSON data
• cmlterm - A command-line terminal for CML
  • View cmlterm's main page for specific installation/usage instructions
  • Allows entering a device directly without an intermediary shell
  • WIP: bash commandline completion for lab/device IDs/names
    • does not currently support double-quoted completions, or those with variables
  • Matches the terminal name to the currently connected device's prompt
  • Enables some otherwise unavailable/hard-to-remember keyboard shortcuts
    • home/end/delete/ctrl-left/ctrl-right/etc
  • Pipe in multiple commands using stdin to automate terminal sessions
    • highly recommended: use --wait to wait for the next prompt between commands
      • Prefix a line with a tilde ~ to override the --wait flag, or to not wait for a prompt before entering commands. (Enter a backslash before it to input a literal tilde at the beginning of a line)
      • Prefix a line with a string enclosed in graves `my_string` and it will wait for that string instead of a prompt (or timeout before sending)
      • Note that this has the subtle effect of enabling line-buffering. This is used to ensure that the string above could be found. Additionally, this means that the searched string may not span multiple lines.
  • TODO: basic opt-in coloring
    • colorize prompt by (copy prompt, \r, color, print prompt, reset color on enter)
• (TODO) cmldiff - Obtains the saved/running config for a device, and compares it to another device's

Authentication:

This library currently expects authentication in the form of environment variables. (Alternative auth mechanisms are welcome to discussion in GH issues)

• CML_HOST: An IP address or hostname where the CML instance can be accessed.
• CML_USER: The username to sign into CML with
• CML_PASS64: A base-64'd version of the user's password (preferred)
• CML_PASS: A plaintext version of the user's password (not recommended)