Netconf plugins are abstractions over the Netconf interface to network devices. They provide a standard interface for Ansible to execute tasks on those network devices.
These plugins generally correspond one-to-one to network device platforms. Ansible loads the appropriate netconf plugin automatically based on the ``ansible_network_os`` variable. If the platform supports standard Netconf implementation as defined in the Netconf RFC specification, Ansible loads the ``default`` netconf plugin. If the platform supports propriety Netconf RPCs, Ansible loads the platform-specific netconf plugin.
You can extend Ansible to support other network devices by dropping a custom plugin into the ``netconf_plugins`` directory.
.._using_netconf:
Using netconf plugins
------------------------
The netconf plugin to use is determined automatically from the ``ansible_network_os`` variable. There should be no reason to override this functionality.
Most netconf plugins can operate without configuration. A few have additional options that can be set to affect how tasks are translated into netconf commands. A ncclient device specific handler name can be set in the netconf plugin or else the value of ``default`` is used as per ncclient device handler.
These plugins have migrated to collections on `Ansible Galaxy <https://galaxy.ansible.com>`_. If you installed Ansible version 2.10 or later using ``pip``, you have access to several netconf plugins. To list all available netconf plugins on your control node, type ``ansible-doc -t netconf -l``. To view plugin-specific documentation and examples, use ``ansible-doc -t netconf``.
