RouterOS versions

RouterOS versions

Which RouterOS versions tik4net is tested against, what each transport needs as a minimum, and how the library copes with the differences between versions. Read it before pointing tik4net at a router that is not on the current RouterOS 7.

In short: tik4net is developed against the current stable RouterOS 7, where every transport runs the full test suite. It also runs on RouterOS 6.49 and on older 7.x, which the lab keeps routers for. It never asks the router for its version to decide what to send. It reads what the router actually has and falls back where a version answers differently.

Tested versions

The lab runs three virtual routers (CHR). Each version below is tested against a live router, not assumed.

RouterOS	Router	What runs there
7.24.4 (stable)	the main lab router	the full integration suite (~650 tests) on all 11 transports, for every non-trivial change
7.21.5 (long-term)	second RouterOS 7	the version-sensitive tests on every transport: flag fields against the binary API, and the transport-by-transport audit of every mapped path against the binary API
6.49.13 (long-term)	the RouterOS 6 router	the smoke subset and the same version-sensitive tests on the 9 transports RouterOS 6 has (no REST); the audit of every mapped path; RoMON relaying to it; copying lists to it from 7.24.4

Anything else — 6.x before 6.49, and 7.x other than these — is not tested. It is expected to work where it answers like its neighbours, and the rules below are what makes that likely. It is not promised.

What each transport needs

Transport	Minimum
Api	any RouterOS the binary API exists on; both login handshakes (login versions)
ApiSsl	api-ssl service, RouterOS 6.1+ (API-SSL)
Rest, RestSsl	RouterOS 7.1+ — the REST API does not exist on 6.x; a request there is refused as TikNoSuchCommandException naming the floor
Telnet, Ssh	any — the CLI is read the way the connected router prints it
MacTelnet, WinboxCliMac, WinboxNativeMac	RouterOS 6.43+ (EC-SRP5 login; the legacy MD5 login is not implemented on the MAC transports)
WinboxCli	6.43+ uses EC-SRP5; older firmware falls back to the legacy MD5 login
WinboxNative	the router's own WinBox catalog, downloaded from it on connect — see below

Two features have a version floor of their own:

• Safe Mode unrolls in place only on 7.18+; before that the discard also ends the session.
• CLI secrets are asked with show-sensitive on RouterOS 7. RouterOS 6 prints them anyway, and a menu that refuses the word is read without it.

How version differences are handled

One rule underneath all of it: read what the router has; never compare version numbers. A version check would be wrong on every release that changes its mind, and on every router whose version string was never measured. What the router answers is always the right answer for that router.

Renamed fields

A few fields have a different name on RouterOS 6 and 7 — /ip/service address became available-from, /tool/e-mail address became server. Such a property carries both names (AlternateNames on [TikProperty]). It reads whichever name the row has, and a save sends the value back under the name it was read under. The list is on Entity reference.

Two consequences:

• Load before saving to an older router. An entity that was never loaded has no name to go back to, so it saves under the first name, and the other version refuses that name.
• A filter uses one name. A filter on a name the router's version does not have matches nothing, and no error says so.

Fields a version does not have

A field the router did not print reads absent (TikValue), never as an invented default. A loaded entity saves only what changed. So reading a RouterOS 7 entity from a RouterOS 6 router and saving it back never writes a 7.x-only field. An entity saved without loading sends every field it holds. If one of them is a 7.x-only field, RouterOS 6 refuses the command (unknown parameter), and nothing is guessed. Where your code relies on a field being there, check after the load: EnsureStrict(TikStrictness.Absent) refuses a field the row did not carry (TikValue).

Enum values a version does not know

A value the enum has no member for is kept as the router's word (TikValue: unparsed), not coerced or lost. So a newer router's new value never breaks a read, and a save leaves an unparsed value you did not touch as it is. A value you assign is always one of the enum's own members.

A menu that changes shape

Rarely, a menu is a different kind of thing on another version. /interface/ovpn-server/server is one unnamed server on RouterOS 6 and a list of named servers on RouterOS 7. The entity maps the 7.x list. On 6.x it reads the one server as a row with a null Id, which cannot be saved through the entity. Use the ADO.NET-like API there.

What the transports adapt to

These are detected on the connection, from the router's own answer, and remembered for that connection:

• CLI transports (Telnet, SSH, MAC-Telnet, WinBox CLI):

  • RouterOS 6 and 7.x before 7.20 leave flag fields (disabled, running, …) out of print as-value. The flags are then read by name, or on RouterOS 6, which has no proplist=, as the ids each flag is set on.
  • A print or monitor with no as-value form (RouterOS 6 /ping, /tool traceroute, /routing bgp advertisements) is read from its plain table. A value the table cuts to its column (lab-b...) reads absent rather than wrong.
  • On RouterOS 6, completion lists on a second Tab, and answers only for the space form of a menu path.
  • RouterOS 7.19 prints .ids in lowercase; they are normalised to the API's form.

  Details: Command translation.

• Binary API: RouterOS 6 stops a .proplist at the first name the menu does not have and drops the rest. The library sends no .proplist of its own for an entity. In your own, put the names only the newer version has last.

• WinBox native downloads the router's own WinBox catalog when it connects, and maps paths and fields from that. Older labels, keys a version does not declare, and fields that moved between windows are resolved per router. A path no WinBox window carries on that version is refused by name. WinBox native.

Copying between versions

SaveListDifferences and list merging work across versions. This is measured by copying an address list and firewall rules from 7.24.4 to 6.49.13: a second sync finds nothing to update. Ids belong to the router they were read from. A copy made for another router must not keep them, or it updates whatever row the target has under that id. Match rows by a key of your own (TikListMerge), or create them without ids.

See also

• Entity reference — the renamed fields, per entity
• TikValue — absent, unparsed and present values
• Connection types and capabilities — what each transport can do
• History — when each of these arrived