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# Greenbone Vulnerability Management Python Library <!-- omit in toc -->

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The Greenbone Vulnerability Management Python API library (**python-gvm**) is a
collection of APIs that help with remote controlling Greenbone Community Edition
installations and Greenbone Enterprise Appliances. The library essentially
abstracts accessing the communication protocols Greenbone Management Protocol
(GMP) and Open Scanner Protocol (OSP).

## Table of Contents <!-- omit in toc -->

- [Documentation](#documentation)
- [Installation](#installation)
  - [Version](#version)
  - [Requirements](#requirements)
  - [Install using pip](#install-using-pip)
- [Example](#example)
- [Support](#support)
- [Maintainer](#maintainer)
- [Contributing](#contributing)
- [License](#license)

## Documentation

The documentation for python-gvm can be found at
[https://greenbone.github.io/python-gvm/](https://greenbone.github.io/python-gvm/).
Please always take a look at the documentation for further details. This
**README** just gives you a short overview.

## Installation

### Version

`python-gvm` uses [semantic versioning](https://semver.org/).

Versions prior to 26.0.0 used [calendar versioning](https://calver.org/).

Please consider to always use the **newest** releases of `gvm-tools` and `python-gvm`.
We frequently update these projects to add features and keep them free from bugs.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> To use `python-gvm` with GMP version of 7, 8 or 9 you must use a release version
> that is `<21.5`. In the `21.5` release the support of these versions has been
> dropped.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> To use `python-gvm` with  GMP version 20.8 or 21.4 you must use a release version
> that is `<24.6`. In the `24.6` release the support of these versions has been
> dropped.

### Requirements

Python 3.10 and later is supported.

### Install using pip

You can install the latest stable release of python-gvm from the Python Package
Index using [pip](https://pip.pypa.io/):

```shell
python3 -m pip install --user python-gvm
```

## Example

```python3
from gvm.connections import UnixSocketConnection
from gvm.protocols.gmp import GMP
from gvm.transforms import EtreeTransform
from gvm.xml import pretty_print

connection = UnixSocketConnection()
transform = EtreeTransform()

with GMP(connection, transform=transform) as gmp:
    # Retrieve GMP version supported by the remote daemon
    version = gmp.get_version()

    # Prints the XML in beautiful form
    pretty_print(version)

    # Login
    gmp.authenticate('foo', 'bar')

    # Retrieve all tasks
    tasks = gmp.get_tasks()

    # Get names of tasks
    task_names = tasks.xpath('task/name/text()')
    pretty_print(task_names)
```

## Support

For any question on the usage of python-gvm please use the
[Greenbone Community Forum](https://forum.greenbone.net/c/building-from-source-under-the-hood/gmp/11). If you
found a problem with the software, please
[create an issue](https://github.com/greenbone/python-gvm/issues)
on GitHub.

## Maintainer

This project is maintained by [Greenbone AG](https://www.greenbone.net/).

## Contributing

Your contributions are highly appreciated. Please
[create a pull request](https://github.com/greenbone/python-gvm/pulls) on GitHub.
For bigger changes, please discuss it first in the
[issues](https://github.com/greenbone/python-gvm/issues).

For development you should use [uv].
to keep you python packages separated in different environments. First install
uv via pip

```shell
python3 -m pip install --user uv
```

The python-gvm repository uses [autohooks](https://github.com/greenbone/autohooks)
to apply linting and auto formatting via git hooks. Please ensure the git hooks
are active.

```shell
uv run autohooks activate --force
```

## License

Copyright (C) 2017-2026 [Greenbone AG](https://www.greenbone.net/)

Licensed under the [GNU General Public License v3.0 or later](LICENSE).

[uv]: https://docs.astral.sh/uv/
