NAME
    Net::Telnet::Cisco - interact with a Cisco router

SYNOPSIS
      use Net::Telnet::Cisco;

      my $session = Net::Telnet::Cisco->new(Host => '123.123.123.123');
      $session->login('login', 'password');

      # Execute a command
      my @output = $session->cmd('show version');
      print @output;

      # Enable mode
      if ($session->enable("enable_password") ) {
          @output = $session->cmd('show privilege');
          print "My privileges: @output\n";
      } else {
          warn "Can't enable: " . $session->errmsg;
      }

      $session->close;

DESCRIPTION
    Net::Telnet::Cisco provides additional functionality to Net::Telnet for
    dealing with Cisco routers.

    cmd() parses router-generated error messages - the kind that begin with
    a '%' - and stows them in $obj->errmsg(), so that errmode can be used to
    perform automatic error-handling actions.

CAVEATS
    Before you use Net::Telnet::Cisco, you should have a good understanding
    of Net::Telnet, so read it's documentation first, and then come back
    here to see the improvements.

    Some things are easier to accomplish with UCD's C-based SNMP module, or
    the all-perl Net::SNMP. SNMP has three advantages: it's faster, handles
    errors better, and doesn't use any VTYs on the router. SNMP does have
    some limitations, so for anything you can't accomplish with SNMP,
    there's Net::Telnet::Cisco.

METHODS
    new - create new Net::Telnet::Cisco object
            $session = Net::Telnet::Cisco->new(
                [Autopage                 => $boolean,]
                [More_prompt              => $matchop,]
                [Always_waitfor_prompt    => $boolean,]
                [Waitfor_pause            => $milliseconds,]
        
                # Net::Telnet arguments
                [Binmode                  => $mode,]
                [Cmd_remove_mode          => $mode,]
                [Dump_Log                 => $filename,]
                [Errmode                  => $errmode,]
                [Fhopen                   => $filehandle,]
                [Host                     => $host,]
                [Input_log                => $file,]
                [Input_record_separator   => $char,]
                [Option_log               => $file,]
                [Output_log               => $file,]
                [Output_record_separator  => $char,]
                [Port                     => $port,]
                [Prompt                   => $matchop,]
                [Telnetmode               => $mode,]
                [Timeout                  => $secs,]
            );

        Creates a new object. Read `perldoc perlboot` if you don't
        understand that.

    login - login to a router
            $ok = $obj->login($username, $password);

            $ok = $obj->login([Name     => $username,]
                              [Password => $password,]
                              [Passcode => $passcode,] # for Secur-ID/XTACACS
                              [Prompt   => $match,]
                              [Timeout  => $secs,]);

        All arguments are optional as of v1.05. Some routers don't ask for a
        username, they start the login conversation with a password request.

    prompt - return control to the program whenever this string occurs in
    router output
            $matchop = $obj->prompt;

            $prev = $obj->prompt($matchop);

        The default cmd_prompt changed in v1.05. It's suitable for matching
        prompts like "router$ ", "router# ", "router> (enable) ", and
        "router(config-if)# "

        Let's take a closer look, shall we?

          (?m:                  # Net::Telnet doesn't accept quoted regexen (i.e. qr//)
                                # so we need to use an embedded pattern-match modifier
                                # to treat the input as a multiline buffer.

            ^                   # beginning of line

              [\w.-]+           # router hostname

              \s?               # optional space

              (?:               # Strings like "(config)" and "(config-if)", "(config-line)",
                                # and "(config-router)" indicate that we're in privileged
                \(config[^\)]*\) # EXEC mode (i.e. we're enabled).
              )?                # The middle backslash is only there to appear my syntax
                                # highlighter.

              \s?               # more optional space

              [\$#>]            # Prompts typically end with "$", "#", or ">". Backslash
                                # for syntax-highlighter.

              \s?               # more space padding

              (?:               # Catalyst switches print "(enable)" when in privileged
                \(enable\)      # EXEC mode.
              )?

              \s*               # spaces before the end-of-line aren't important to us.

            $                   # end of line

          )                     # end of (?m:

        The default prompt published in 1.03 was
        "/^\s*[\w().-]*[\$#>]\s?(?:\(enable\))?\s*$/". As you can see, the
        prompt was drastically overhauled in 1.05. If your code suddenly
        starts timing out after upgrading Net::Telnet::Cisco, this is the
        first thing to investigate.

    enable - enter enabled mode
            $ok = $obj->enable;

            $ok = $obj->enable($password);

            $ok = $obj->enable([Name => $name,] [Password => $password,]
                               [Passcode => $passcode,] [Level => $level,]);

        This method changes privilege level to enabled mode, (i.e. root)

        If a single argument is provided by the caller, it will be used as a
        password. For more control, including the ability to set the
        privilege-level, you must use the named-argument scheme.

        enable() returns 1 on success and undef on failure.

    is_enabled - Am I root?
            $bool = $obj->is_enabled;

        A trivial check to see whether we have a root-style prompt, with
        either the word "(enable)" in it, or a trailing "#".

        Warning: this method will return false positives if your prompt has
        "#"s in it. You may be better off calling "$obj->cmd("show
        privilege")" instead.

    disable - leave enabled mode
            $ok = $obj->disable;

        This method exits the router's privileged mode.

    last_prompt - displays the last prompt matched by prompt()
            $match = $obj->last_prompt;

        last_prompt() will return '' if the program has not yet matched a
        prompt.

    always_waitfor_prompt - waitfor and cmd prompt behaviour
            $boolean = $obj->always_waitfor_prompt;

            $boolean = $obj->always_waitfor_prompt($boolean);

        If you pass a Prompt argument to cmd() or waitfor() a String or
        Match, they will return control on a successful match of your
        argument(s) or the default prompt. Set always_waitfor_prompt to 0 to
        return control only for your arguments.

        This method has no effect on login(). login() will always wait for a
        prompt.

    waitfor_pause - insert a small delay before waitfor()
            $boolean = $obj->waitfor_pause;

            $boolean = $obj->waitfor_pause($milliseconds);

        In rare circumstances, the last_prompt is set incorrectly. By adding
        a very small delay before calling the parent class's waitfor(), this
        bug is eliminated. If you ever find reason to modify this from it's
        default setting, please let me know.

    autopage - Turn autopaging on and off
            $boolean = $obj->autopage;

            $boolean = $obj->autopage($boolean);

        IOS pages output by default. It expects human eyes to be reading the
        output, not programs. Humans hit the spacebar to scroll page by page
        so autopage() mimicks that behaviour. This is the slow way to handle
        paging. See the Paging EXAMPLE for a faster way.

    more_prompt - Regex used by autopage()
            $matchop = $obj->prompt;

            $prev = $obj->prompt($matchop);

        Default is '/(?m:\s*--More--)/'.

        Please email me if you find others.

EXAMPLES
  Paging

    v1.08 added internal autopaging support to cmd(). Whenever a '--Page--'
    prompt appears on the screen, we send a space right back. It works, but
    it's slow. You'd be better off sending one of the following commands
    just after login():

      # To a router
      $session->cmd('terminal length 0');

      # To a switch
      $session->cmd('set length 0');

  Logging

    Want to see the session transcript? Just call input_log().

      e.g.
      my $session = Net::Telnet::Cisco->new(Host => $router,
                                            Input_log => "input.log",
                                            );

    See input_log() in Net::Telnet for info.

    Input logs are easy-to-read translated transcripts with all of the
    control characters and telnet escapes cleaned up. If you want to view
    the raw session, see dump_log() in Net::Telnet.

  Big output

    Trying to dump the entire BGP table? (e.g. "show ip bgp") The default
    buffer size is 1MB, so you'll have to increase it.

      my $MB = 1024 * 1024;
      $session->max_buffer_length(5 * $MB);

  Sending multiple lines at once

    Some commands like "extended ping" and "copy" prompt for several lines
    of data. It's not necessary to change the prompt for each line. Instead,
    send everything at once, separated by newlines.

    For:

      router# ping
      Protocol [ip]:
      Target IP address: 10.0.0.1
      Repeat count [5]: 10
      Datagram size [100]: 1500
      Timeout in seconds [2]:
      Extended commands [n]:
      Sweep range of sizes [n]:

    Try this:

      my $protocol  = ''; # default value
      my $ip       = '10.0.0.1';
      my $repeat    = 10;
      my $datagram  = 1500;
      my $timeout   = ''; # default value
      my $extended  = ''; # default value
      my $sweep     = ''; # default value

      $session->cmd(
      "ping
      $protocol
      $ip
      $repeat
      $datagram
      $timeout
      $extended
      $sweep
      ");

    If you prefer, you can put the cmd on a single line and replace every
    static newline with the "\n" character.

    e.g.

      $session->cmd("ping\n$protocol\n$ip\n$repeat\n$datagram\n"
                  . "$timeout\n$extended\n$sweep\n");

  Backup via TFTP

      Backs up the running-confg to a TFTP server. Backup file is in
      the form "router-confg". Make sure that file exists on the TFTP
      server or the transfer will fail!

      my $backup_host  = "tftpserver.somewhere.net";
      my $device       = "cisco.somewhere.net";
      my $type         = "router"; # or "switch";
      my $ios_version  = 12;

      my @out;
      if ($type eq "router") {
          if ($ios_version >= 12) {
              @out = $session->cmd("copy system:/running-config "
                            . "tftp://$backup_host/$device-confg\n\n\n");
          } elsif ($ios_version >= 11) {
              @out = $session->cmd("copy running-config tftp\n$backup_host\n"
                            . "$device-confg\n");
          } elsif ($ios_version >= 10) {
              @out = $session->cmd("write net\n$backup_host\n$device-confg\n\n");
          }
      } elsif ($type eq "switch") {
          @out = $session->cmd("copy system:/running-config "
                        . "tftp://$backup_host/$device-confg\n\n\n");
      }

SEE ALSO
    Net::Telnet Net::SNMP "UCD NetSNMP webpage http://www.netsnmp.org/"
    "RAT/NCAT project http://ncat.sourceforge.net/"

AUTHOR
    Joshua_Keroes@eli.net $Date: 2002/01/30 23:50:40 $

    It would greatly amuse the author if you would send email to him and
    tell him how you are using Net::Telnet::Cisco.

    As of Jan 2002, 150 people have emailed me. N::T::C is used to help
    manage over 10,000 machines! Keep the email rolling in!

THANKS
    The following people understand what Open Source Software is all about.
    Thanks Brian Landers, Aaron Racine, Niels van Dijke, Tony Mueller, Frank
    Eickholt, Al Sorrell, Jebi Punnoose, Christian Alfsen, Niels van Dijke,
    Kevin der Kinderen, Ian Batterbee, and Leonardo Cont.

    Institutions: infobot.org #perl, perlmonks.org, the geeks at
    geekhouse.org, and eli.net.

    Send in a patch and we can make the world a better place.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
    Copyright (c) 2000-2002 Joshua Keroes, Electric Lightwave Inc. All
    rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it
    and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.