Platform Compatibility¶

Networka provides comprehensive cross-platform support, ensuring network engineers can use the same powerful automation tools regardless of their operating system.

Supported Platforms¶

Operating Systems¶

Linux: All major distributions (Ubuntu, RHEL, CentOS, Debian, etc.)
macOS: Intel and Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) processors
Windows: Windows 10/11 (x64)

Python Versions¶

Python 3.11: Full support
Python 3.12: Full support
Python 3.13: Full support

Tested configurations¶

CI validates Linux, macOS, and Windows runners across Python 3.11–3.13. For production usage, Linux and macOS are first-class; Windows is best-effort unless using WSL2.

Installation Notes¶

Linux¶

No additional system dependencies required
Works with all major package managers (apt, yum, dnf, pacman)
Container-ready for Docker deployments

Tested configurations¶

CI covers Linux, macOS, and Windows runners across Python 3.11–3.13. For production usage, Linux and macOS are first-class; Windows is best-effort unless using WSL2.

Scrapli (default transport) is not officially supported on native Windows. It may work via Paramiko or ssh2-python, but the strongly recommended setup is WSL2 (Ubuntu) to provide a POSIX environment.
Pre-built wheels for all C extensions
No Visual Studio Build Tools required
PowerShell and Command Prompt compatible (best-effort); WSL2 is preferred
Scrapli (default transport) is not officially supported on native Windows. It may work via Paramiko or ssh2-python, but the strongly recommended setup is WSL2 (Ubuntu) to provide a POSIX environment.
PowerShell and Command Prompt are supported on a best-effort basis; prefer WSL2 for a smoother experience.

WSL2 quickstart (recommended)¶

Enable WSL and install Ubuntu from the Microsoft Store
Open Ubuntu terminal
Install uv and git, then install Networka from GitHub:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
exec $SHELL
uv tool install git+https://github.com/narrowin/networka.git
nw --help

Networking Libraries¶

scrapli: Multi-vendor SSH automation

Cryptography¶

cryptography: Modern cryptographic recipes
bcrypt: Password hashing
pynacl: Networking and cryptography

Performance¶

Performance notes¶

Performance is comparable across Linux and macOS. On Windows, use WSL2 for best results.

Known Platform Differences¶

Path Handling¶

Automatic path normalization across platforms
Windows drive letter support
POSIX-style paths on Linux/macOS

Terminal Colors¶

Rich terminal support on all platforms
Windows Terminal and PowerShell color support
Graceful fallback for legacy terminals

SSH Key Management¶

Platform-native SSH key locations
Windows OpenSSH integration
macOS Keychain integration available

Troubleshooting¶

Windows-Specific Issues¶

If you encounter permission issues on Windows:

# Run PowerShell as Administrator
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

macOS-Specific Issues¶

For macOS Gatekeeper warnings:

# Trust the Python installation
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /usr/local/bin/python3

Linux-Specific Issues¶

For older distributions, ensure Python 3.11+ is available:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3.11

# RHEL/CentOS
sudo dnf install python3.11

Performance notes¶

Performance is comparable across Linux and macOS. On Windows, use WSL2 for best results.

Container Support¶

Docker¶

FROM python:3.12-slim
RUN pip install git+https://github.com/narrowin/networka.git

Podman¶

podman run -it python:3.12-slim
pip install git+https://github.com/narrowin/networka.git

CI/CD Integration¶

Networka is tested across platforms using GitHub Actions:

Ubuntu runners for Linux testing
macOS runners for Apple platform testing
Windows runners for Microsoft platform testing

This ensures every release works reliably across all supported platforms.