On-demand download of netlab topology

[ipspace]

Netlab commands that take topology file as input could accept URLs, download the URL content into downloaded.yml (or some such), and execute the rest of the command.

The "only" thing I'm worried about is the security. Should we warn the user that it's not safe to download and execute content without examining it?

[jbemmel]

Variant on this would be to specify a git url - have Netlab checkout the repo and launch the lab (assuming standard naming conventions)

Labs are often a collection of artifacts, not just single files

[ipspace]

Variant on this would be to specify a git url - have Netlab checkout the repo and launch the lab (assuming standard naming conventions)

You're effectively saying "replicate this: https://containerlab.dev/cmd/deploy/#remote-topology-files"

I love the idea, but let's make the "deploy from URL" the first step and go from there.

[ipspace]

Variant on this would be to specify a git url - have Netlab checkout the repo and launch the lab (assuming standard naming conventions)

This is now less pressing thanks to #2573 and #2580

[sdktr]

Since this adds a new dependency, should we consider the more feature rich replacements for 'requests' like niquest or httpx?

[ipspace]

Since this adds a new dependency, should we consider the more feature rich replacements for 'requests' like niquest or httpx?

If anything, I'd go for something that might be already installed due to other software using it. Also, it looks like 'requests' is way more mature and more commonly used than the alternatives.

[sdktr]

Nobody ever got fired for choosing 'requests', thats for sure 😀
Pretty low impact if we ever encounter the need to change anyway. OK!