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

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))

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 understands 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

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

ciscoconfparse requires Python versions 2.7 or 3.5+ (note: version 3.7.0 has a bug - ref Github issue #117, but version 3.7.1 works); the OS should not matter.

You can install into Python2.x with pip:

pip install --upgrade ciscoconfparse

Use pip3 for Python3.x...

pip3 install --upgrade ciscoconfparse

If you don't want to use pip, you can install with easy_install:

easy_install -U ciscoconfparse

Otherwise download it from PyPi, extract it and run the setup.py script:

python setup.py install

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

• From github:

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

• 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)

• Please report any suggestions, bug reports, or annoyances with ciscoconfparse through the github bug tracker.
• 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 a question.
• If you're having problems with your Cisco devices, you can open a case with Cisco TAC; if you prefer crowd-sourcing, you can ask on the Stack Exchange Network Engineering site.

Travis CI project tests ciscoconfparse on Python versions 2.7 through 3.8, as well as a pypy JIT executable.

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

ciscoconfparse is licensed GPLv3; Copyright David Michael Pennington, 2007-2021.

ciscoconfparse is not affiliated with Cisco Systems in any way; the word "Cisco" is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems

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

Special thanks:

• Thanks to David Muir Sharnoff for his suggestion about making a special case for IOS banners.
• Thanks to Alan Cownie for his API suggestions.
• Thanks to CrackerJackMack for reporting Github Issue #13
• Soli Deo Gloria