# Concise Link Descriptions in netlab Topologies

DevFeed: [Concise Link Descriptions in netlab Topologies](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/concise-link-descriptions-in-netlab-topologies-11125.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.ipspace.net/2025/01/netlab-link-definitions/>)

Published: 2025-01-20T07:22:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [ipSpace.net blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/ipspace-net-blog.md>)

Topics: [Network](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/network.md>), [YAML](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/yaml.md>), [data-processing](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data-processing.md>)

Tags: [data-transformation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data-transformation.md>), [interfaces](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/interfaces.md>), [netlab](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/netlab.md>), [network](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/network.md>), [ospf](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ospf.md>), [router](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/router.md>), [yaml](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/yaml.md>)

## AI overview

This tutorial explains how netlab represents links between lab devices and the shorthand formats available for defining them in YAML. It covers hyphen-separated node strings, node lists, dictionary-based link definitions, link attributes, and interface parameters, while showing that all formats are transformed into a common interfaces-based data model.

## Source excerpt

One of the goals we're always trying to achieve when developing netlab features is to make the lab topologies as concise as possible1. Among other things, netlab supports numerous ways of describing links between lab devices, allowing you to be as succinct as possible. A bit of a background first: In the end, netlab collects all links in the links list before starting the data transformation process. Every entry in the links list is a dictionary. That dictionary can contain link attributes and must contain a list of interfaces connected to the link. Every interface must have a node (specifying the lab device it belongs to) and could contain additional interface attributes. Read more ...