WBEM client library

Class WBEMConnection is the main class of the WBEM client library and is a good starting point to understand the WBEM client API.

Importing the pywbem package causes some names from its sub-modules to be folded into the package namespace. For example, class WBEMConnection is defined in the cim_operations sub-module and is folded into the package namespace:

import pywbem
conn = pywbem.WBEMConnection(...)

it can also be used from its sub-module:

from pywbem.cim_operations import WBEMConnection
conn = WBEMConnection(...)

Using the symbol from the package namespace is preferred; but both forms are supported.

Not all public symbols from all sub-modules of the pywbem package are part of the external API of the WBEM client library. The external API generally consists of the symbols in the pywbem package namespace, and the corresponding symbols in its sub-modules.

Consumers of this package that use other symbols than those from the external API are at the risk of suffering from incompatible changes in future versions of this package.

The Epydoc documentation tool that is used to produce these web pages does not list all symbols that are folded into the package namespace, unfortunately (as you can see, it lists only the variables, not including __version__). It does however honor the __all__ variable defining the exported symbols in each sub-module, and shows only those exported symbols in the documentation that is generated for the sub-modules. In other words, the symbols that you can see in the generated documentation for a sub-module is exactly what is part of the external API.

The external API of the WBEM client library consists of the following symbols:

• All symbols exported by the pywbem package, which are:
  • __version__ (string) - Version of the pywbem package.
  • The symbols exported from the sub-modules in the remainder of this list, folded into the pywbem package namespace.
• All symbols exported by the cim_operations module.
• All symbols exported by the cim_constants module.
• All symbols exported by the cim_types module.
• All symbols exported by the cim_obj module.
• All symbols exported by the tupleparse module.
• All symbols exported by the cim_http module.

WBEM utility commands

This package provides the following commands (implemented as Python scripts):

• mof_compiler : A MOF compiler.

  It has a pluggable interface for the MOF repository. The default implementation of that interface uses a WBEM server as its MOF repository. It uses the mof_compiler module that can also be used by Python programs that need to compile MOF.

  Invoke with --help for help.

  The external API of the MOF compiler consists of the following symbols:

  • All symbols exported by the mof_compiler module. This includes the plug interface for the MOF repository.

• wbemcli : A WBEM client CLI.

  It is currently implemented as an interactive shell, and is expected to morph into a full fledged command line utility in the future.

  Invoke with --help for help, or see the wbemcli module.

  The WBEM client CLI does not have an external API on its own; it is for the most part a consumer of the WBEMConnection class.

These commands are installed into the Python script directory and should therefore be available in the command search path.

Experimental components

This package contains some components that are considered experimental at this point:

• cim_provider : Module for writing CIM providers in Python.
• cim_provider2 : Another module for writing CIM providers in Python.
• twisted_client : An experimental alternative WBEM client library that uses the Python twisted package.

These components are included in this package, but they are not covered in the generated documentation, at this point.

WBEM Listener (irecv)

The PYWBEM Client project on GitHub (https://github.com/pywbem/pywbem) contains the irecv package in addition to the pywbem package. The irecv package is a WBEM listener (indication receiver) and is considered experimental at this point.

It is not included in this package or in the generated documentation, at this point.

You can get it by accessing the irecv directory of the PyWBEM Client project on GitHub.

Version

For the current version of the pywbem package, see the NEWS file. Its version can also be retrieved from the pywbem.__version__ attribute (as a string).

Changes

The change log is in the NEWS file.

Compatibility

The pywbem package is supported in these environments:

• on Windows, with Python 2.6, 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, and higher 3.x
• on Linux, with Python 2.6, 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, and higher 3.x

OS X has simply not been tested and is therefore not listed, above. You are welcome to try it out and report any issues.