NORFAB CLI Overview

NORFAB comes with an interactive command line shell interface invoked using nfcli to work with the system. The CLI provides a powerful and flexible way to interact with NORFAB, enabling users to manage and automate network operations efficiently.

NORFAB CLI designed as a modal operating system. The term modal describes a system that has various modes of operation, each having its own domain of operation. The CLI uses a hierarchical structure for the modes.

You can access a lower-level mode only from a higher-level mode. For example, to access the Nornir mode, you must be in the privileged EXEC mode. Each mode is used to accomplish particular tasks and has a specific set of commands that are available in this mode. For example, to configure a router interface, you must be in Nornir configuration mode. All configurations that you enter in configuration mode apply only to this function.

NORFAB CLI build using PICLE package.

Local environment file

At startup, NFCLI uses NFAPI to detect a .env file in the directory that contains inventory.yaml. Variables are loaded before inventory Jinja2 rendering and are inherited by locally started broker and worker processes. Values in .env override variables already exported by the shell or supplied by CI.

# .env
LAB_USERNAME=operator
LAB_PASSWORD="local development password"

Reference the values from inventory with the env Jinja2 dictionary:

defaults:
  username: '{{ env.get("LAB_USERNAME") }}'
  password: '{{ env.get("LAB_PASSWORD") }}'

See the NFAPI environment file reference for the supported file syntax and API controls.

It is important to remember that in PICLE Shell, when you enter a command, the command is executed. If you enter an incorrect command in a production environment, it can negatively impact it.