Python Network Programming

Idempotent network device interaction

The term idempotency has different meanings, depending on its context. But in this book's context, the term means that when a client makes the same call to a remote device, the result should always be the same. I believe we can all agree that this is necessary. Imagine a scenario where each time you execute the same script, you get a different result back. I find that scenario very scary. How can you trust your script if that is the case? It would render our automation effort useless because we need to be prepared to handle different returns. 

Since Pexpect and Paramiko are blasting out a series of commands interactively, the chance of having a non-idempotent interaction is higher. Going back to the fact ...