Book Image

Network Programming and Automation Essentials

By : Claus Töpke
Book Image

Network Programming and Automation Essentials

By: Claus Töpke

Overview of this book

Network programming and automation, unlike traditional networking, is a modern-day skill that helps in configuring, managing, and operating networks and network devices. This book will guide you with important information, helping you set up and start working with network programming and automation. With Network Programming and Automation Essentials, you’ll learn the basics of networking in brief. You’ll explore the network programming and automation ecosystem, learn about the leading programmable interfaces, and go through the protocols, tools, techniques, and technologies associated with network programming. You’ll also master network automation using Python and Go with hands-on labs and real network emulation in this comprehensive guide. By the end of this book, you’ll be well equipped to program and automate networks efficiently.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
1
Part 1: Foundations for Network Automation
6
Part 2: Network Programming for Automation
11
Part 3: Testing, Hands-On, and Going Forward

Using third-party libraries

When developing network automation, it is always worth researching tools and libraries in the community to see if you can incorporate some external code that will add functionalities or speed up your development process.

In preparation to explain how to use third-party libraries, it is important to understand how libraries in general are used in Python and Go. We’ll detail the library-adding process in Python and Go in this section.

Adding Python libraries

Before discussing how libraries are added to Python, it is important to explain that, in Python, a library is also known as a package or a module. These three terms are used widely throughout Python documentation, which can make some new Python developers confused. So, whenever you see the term “Python library”, it can also mean a package or a module.

A library in Python can be external, internal, or built-in. These external libraries are also known as third-party modules...