Building network automation solutions

TL&DR: we renamed netsim-tools to netlab as the project evolved from a bag of tools into a full-blown intent-based lab-as-code system (how’s that for a Bullshit Bingo winner?).

There is no change to the functionality, user interface (CLI commands), or documentation. Upgrading the existing Python package should install the new one, but please make sure you install or upgrade networklab Python package instead of netsim-tools; we won’t keep the backward compatibility forever.

Now for more details:

• The bulk of the change was renaming the Python package to networklab¹ and fixing documentation (replacing all netsim-tools references with netlab). We also bumped the version to 1.3 (release notes)
• GitHub repositories have been renamed: ipspace/netsim-tools to ipspace/netlab and ipspace/netsim-examples to ipspace/netlab-examples. GitHub creates automatic redirects – git remotes and forks still work – but it might be a good idea to update your remote repositories with git remote set-url. @Loren: thanks a million for the tip!
• The Python modules have not been renamed
• The documentation has moved to netlab.tools.
• netlab-related blog posts were updated to use the new project name and repository URL. The blog post URLs will not change.

What’s the impact:

• If you haven’t used netlab before: none. Follow the updated installation guide.
• A happy user? Remove netsim-tools package with pip3 uninstall netsim-tools and install networklab package with pip3 install networklab (or whatever else you’re doing to manage your Python packages).
• You can also upgrade the netsim-tools package with pip3 install --upgrade netsim-tools. That command will remove the old netsim-tools package, replace it with an empty stub, and install the networklab package (now a dependency of netsim-tools).

Revision History

2023-05-21

Documentation has moved to netlab.tools.

2022-08-28

Renamed GitHub repositories based on feedback by Loren.