NAME

router-colorizer.pl - Colorize router CLI output

VERSION

version 1.222681

DESCRIPTION

This script colorizes the output of router output, using the App::RouterColorizer module. This script takes no arguments.

The output will be colorized based on detection of key strings as they might be sent from Arista, Juniper, and VyOS routers. It may also work on other router outputs, but these have not been used for development.

/usr/bin/ssh router.example.com | router-colorizer.pl

COLOR CODING

Color coding is used, which assumes a black background on your terminal. The colors used indicate different kinds of output. Note that most lines of output are not colorized, only "important" (as defined by me!) lines are colorized.

green

Green text is used to signify "good" values. For instance, in the output from show interfaces on an Arista router, seeing lines indicating the circuit is "up" and not showing errors will show in green.

orange

Orange text is used to show things that aren't "good" but also aren't "bad." For instance, administratively down interfaces in show interfaces status will typically show as orange.

red

Red text indicates error conditions, such as errors being seen on the output of show interfaces.

cyan

Cyan text indicates potentially important text, seperated out from text that is not-so-important. For instance, in show bgp neighbors, cyan is used to point out lines indicating which route map is being used.

IP Address Colorization

IP addresses are also colorized. These are colorized one of several colors, all with a colorized background, based on the IP/CIDR address. Thus, an IP address like 1.2.3.4 will always be the same color, which should make it easier to spot potential transposition or copy mistakes (if it shows up sometimes as white-on-blue, but other times as black-on-red, it's not the same address!).

Number Grouping/Underlines

The progarm also underlines alternating groups of 3 digits as they appear in digit strings. This is used to assist people who might have dyslexia or other visual processing differences, to allow them to quickly determine if 1000000 is 1,000,000 or 10,000,000.

Configuring a BASH Function

One way to make using this script easier is to create a Bash subroutine. For instance, to use something like sshr routername.example.com to SSH to a router and filter the output through this script, define the following in your ~/.bashrc:

sshr() {
    ssh "$@" | router-colorizer.pl
}

BUGS

None known, however it is certainly possible that I am less than perfect. If you find any bug you believe has security implications, I would greatly appreciate being notified via email sent to jmaslak@antelope.net prior to public disclosure. In the event of such notification, I will attempt to work with you to develop a plan for fixing the bug.

All other bugs can be reported via email to jmaslak@antelope.net or by using the GitHub issue tracker at https://github.com/jmaslak/App-RouterColorizer/issues

AUTHOR

Joelle Maslak <jmaslak@antelope.net>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2021-2022 by Joelle Maslak.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.