labctl

README

Labctl command line utility

For information on ho to use Labctl, see the user documentation at https://labctl.net.

This README file contains info on the labctl internals and should be the starting point if you want to contribute to the project. The following repositories form part of the labctl project:

• labctl/labctl - the main labctl go command line utility
• labctl/labctl-frontend - the web frontend - built & uploaded here
• labctl/labctl-docs - the labctl.net website
• labctl/labctl-examples - example labs, topology files and templates

Config Engine

Labctl uses the Config Engine from containerlab to process magic variables and render templates

The go text/template library is extended with user defined functions from:

• https://docs.gomplate.ca/
• https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/kellerza/template

Config Engine Issues

Feel free to open any Config Engine related issue on labctl. You can also view open issues on containerlab here

labctl serve Web API

The server paths are defined in cmd_serve.go and used by the labctl-frontend

path	Description
/ws	Websocket for commands, updates, rendering, etc
/wspty	PTY via Websocket, for SSH/terminal sessions
/topo	The Topology file for the graph
/vars
/templates
/files
/error

Websocket messages

The websocket messages used on the /ws API endpoint are defined in ws_message.go

code	sent by	description
error, warn	server	Display messages in the frontend
template	both	Render a template on the server as&when requested by the frontend
uidata	both	The frontend uses this msg to save persistent data in the local labctl yml file file
config	both	Execute a config command on the server and return the results to the frontend
fschange	server	Notify the frontend of file updates (README, topology, etc.)