Unexpected behavior when re-entering top level command for the list element

[EvgeniiVR]

Hello team,

not sure if this question should be addressed to clixon space, probably to cligen, pls correct me if I'm wrong. Noticed unexpected behavior in case we re-enter top level command for the list element -> candidate config flushes all existing nodes within this element. Let me describe the issue in more details w/ example:

Entering list of "set" commands

> set routing table 10 VRF-10
> set routing table 10 VRF-10 address-family ipv4-unicast
> set routing table 10 VRF-10 address-family ipv6-unicast
> set routing table 20 VRF-20
> set routing table 20 VRF-20 address-family ipv4-unicast
> set routing table 20 VRF-20 address-family ipv6-unicast

Checking candidate

> show configuration | show cli
set routing table 10 VRF-10
set routing table 10 VRF-10 address-family ipv4-unicast
set routing table 10 VRF-10 address-family ipv6-unicast
set routing table 20 VRF-20
set routing table 20 VRF-20 address-family ipv4-unicast
set routing table 20 VRF-20 address-family ipv6-unicast

Commit. Backend debug output

 table(element) add
    id(element) add
    name(element) add
    address-family(element) add
       af-type(element) add
    address-family(element) add
       af-type(element) add

Re-enter top level command for any element within existin list

> set routing table 10 VRF-10

Checking candidate

> show configuration | show cli
set routing table 10 VRF-10
set routing table 20 VRF-20
set routing table 20 VRF-20 address-family ipv4-unicast
set routing table 20 VRF-20 address-family ipv6-unicast

Candidate misses previously configured nodes.

Commit. Backend debug output

 table(element) change
    id(element)
    name(element)
    address-family(element) delete
       af-type(element) delete
    address-family(element) delete
       af-type(element) delete

And we can see that internal nodes have "delete" flags, however we didn't push explicit cmd to delete them.

Is it expected behavior or not? pls advise.

[EvgeniiVR]

and some output from cli debug

<rpc xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" cl:username="root" xmlns:cl="http://clicon.org/lib" xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" message-id="42"><get-config><source><candidate/></source><nc:filter nc:type="xpath" nc:select="/main:routing/vrf:table/vrf:id" xmlns:main="urn:com.example:yang:main" xmlns:vrf="urn:com.example:yang:vrf"/></get-config></rpc>
##

Apr 18 16:11:48.008299: clixon_msg_rcv11:599: Recv: <rpc-reply xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"><data><routing xmlns="urn:com.example:yang:main"><table xmlns="urn:com.example:yang:vrf"><id>10</id><name>VRF-10</name></table><table xmlns="urn:com.example:yang:vrf"><id>20</id><name>VRF-20</name></table><table xmlns="urn:com.example:yang:vrf"><id>30</id><name>VRF-30</name></table></routing></data></rpc-reply>
Apr 18 16:11:48.008671: clixon_msg_send:354: Send [/usr/local/var/run/cli.sock]:
#416
<rpc xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" cl:username="root" xmlns:cl="http://clicon.org/lib" xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" message-id="42"><get-config><source><candidate/></source><nc:filter nc:type="xpath" nc:select="/main:routing/vrf:table[vrf:id='20']/vrf:name" xmlns:main="urn:com.example:yang:main" xmlns:vrf="urn:com.example:yang:vrf"/></get-config></rpc>
##

Apr 18 16:11:48.009011: clixon_msg_rcv11:599: Recv: <rpc-reply xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"><data><routing xmlns="urn:com.example:yang:main"><table xmlns="urn:com.example:yang:vrf"><id>20</id><name>VRF-20</name></table></routing></data></rpc-reply>
Apr 18 16:11:48.009335: clixon_msg_send:354: Send [/usr/local/var/run/cli.sock]:
#446
<rpc xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" xmlns:nc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" cl:username="root" xmlns:cl="http://clicon.org/lib" message-id="42"><edit-config><target><candidate/></target><default-operation>none</default-operation><config><routing xmlns="urn:com.example:yang:main"><table xmlns="urn:com.example:yang:vrf" nc:operation="replace"><id>20</id><name>VRF-20</name></table></routing></config></edit-config></rpc>

As we can see autocli sends "replace" operation in this case

[olofhagsand]

This is a re-occurring question and has to do with he nature of NETCONF operations (see https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6241#section-7.2) and the autocli "set" command. You should probably use merge instead. I added a new subsection in the user guide to clarify, see https://clixon-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cli.html#netconf-operations Thanks for pointing this out.

[EvgeniiVR]

Hello @olofhagsand, Got your point. Thank you for clarifying and strong support!