a template-based state machine for parsing semi-formatted text in Python that is often used to analyze the output of CLI driven devices, such as network routers and switches, but it can be used for any textual output. This tag should not be confused with [fsm].
TextFSM is a template-based finite state machine for parsing semi-formatted text in Python developed at Google Inc.
This tag should be only used for questions specific to TextFSM and not for general text-parsing or text-parsing questions that work the same outside of the context of TextFSM. Should not be confused with finite state machine fsm questions as well.
The purpose of TextFSM is to simplify the extraction of semi-structured data out of traditional network devices, such as network routers and switches, but it can be used for any (CLI-driven) textual output.
Basically, an extraction and transformation template, consisting of variables and rules with regular expressions, is applied to text input, e.g. a log file, to produce the desired result.
