diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/development/running-nixos-tests-interactively.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/development/running-nixos-tests-interactively.xml
index e390d62fde2..ea3ba0e4bf7 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/development/running-nixos-tests-interactively.xml
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/development/running-nixos-tests-interactively.xml
@@ -14,14 +14,14 @@
 starting VDE switch for network 1
 <prompt>&gt;</prompt>
 </screen>
-  You can then take any Perl statement, e.g.
+  You can then take any Python statement, e.g.
 <screen>
-<prompt>&gt;</prompt> startAll
-<prompt>&gt;</prompt> testScript
-<prompt>&gt;</prompt> $machine->succeed("touch /tmp/foo")
-<prompt>&gt;</prompt> print($machine->succeed("pwd")) # Show stdout of command
+<prompt>&gt;</prompt> start_all()
+<prompt>&gt;</prompt> test_script()
+<prompt>&gt;</prompt> machine.succeed("touch /tmp/foo")
+<prompt>&gt;</prompt> print(machine.succeed("pwd")) # Show stdout of command
 </screen>
-  The function <command>testScript</command> executes the entire test script
+  The function <command>test_script</command> executes the entire test script
   and drops you back into the test driver command line upon its completion.
   This allows you to inspect the state of the VMs after the test (e.g. to debug
   the test script).
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/development/writing-nixos-tests.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/development/writing-nixos-tests.xml
index 6be2d0a4d23..24efd2e3273 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/development/writing-nixos-tests.xml
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/development/writing-nixos-tests.xml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
  <para>
   A NixOS test is a Nix expression that has the following structure:
 <programlisting>
-import ./make-test.nix {
+import ./make-test-python.nix {
 
   # Either the configuration of a single machine:
   machine =
@@ -27,11 +27,11 @@ import ./make-test.nix {
 
   testScript =
     ''
-      <replaceable>Perl code…</replaceable>
+      <replaceable>Python code…</replaceable>
     '';
 }
 </programlisting>
-  The attribute <literal>testScript</literal> is a bit of Perl code that
+  The attribute <literal>testScript</literal> is a bit of Python code that
   executes the test (described below). During the test, it will start one or
   more virtual machines, the configuration of which is described by the
   attribute <literal>machine</literal> (if you need only one machine in your
@@ -96,26 +96,27 @@ xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/virtualis
  </para>
 
  <para>
-  The test script is a sequence of Perl statements that perform various
+  The test script is a sequence of Python statements that perform various
   actions, such as starting VMs, executing commands in the VMs, and so on. Each
   virtual machine is represented as an object stored in the variable
-  <literal>$<replaceable>name</replaceable></literal>, where
-  <replaceable>name</replaceable> is the identifier of the machine (which is
-  just <literal>machine</literal> if you didn’t specify multiple machines
-  using the <literal>nodes</literal> attribute). For instance, the following
-  starts the machine, waits until it has finished booting, then executes a
-  command and checks that the output is more-or-less correct:
+  <literal><replaceable>name</replaceable></literal> if this is also the
+  identifier of the machine in the declarative config.
+  If you didn't specify multiple machines using the <literal>nodes</literal>
+  attribute, it is just <literal>machine</literal>.
+  The following example starts the machine, waits until it has finished booting,
+  then executes a command and checks that the output is more-or-less correct:
 <programlisting>
-$machine->start;
-$machine->waitForUnit("default.target");
-$machine->succeed("uname") =~ /Linux/ or die;
+machine.start()
+machine.wait_for_unit("default.target")
+if not "Linux" in machine.succeed("uname"):
+  raise Exception("Wrong OS")
 </programlisting>
   The first line is actually unnecessary; machines are implicitly started when
-  you first execute an action on them (such as <literal>waitForUnit</literal>
+  you first execute an action on them (such as <literal>wait_for_unit</literal>
   or <literal>succeed</literal>). If you have multiple machines, you can speed
   up the test by starting them in parallel:
 <programlisting>
-startAll;
+start_all()
 </programlisting>
  </para>
 
@@ -187,7 +188,7 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>getScreenText</methodname>
+     <methodname>get_screen_text</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
@@ -204,7 +205,7 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>sendMonitorCommand</methodname>
+     <methodname>send_monitor_command</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
@@ -215,23 +216,23 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>sendKeys</methodname>
+     <methodname>send_keys</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Simulate pressing keys on the virtual keyboard, e.g.,
-      <literal>sendKeys("ctrl-alt-delete")</literal>.
+      <literal>send_keys("ctrl-alt-delete")</literal>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>sendChars</methodname>
+     <methodname>send_chars</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Simulate typing a sequence of characters on the virtual keyboard, e.g.,
-      <literal>sendKeys("foobar\n")</literal> will type the string
+      <literal>send_keys("foobar\n")</literal> will type the string
       <literal>foobar</literal> followed by the Enter key.
      </para>
     </listitem>
@@ -272,7 +273,7 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>waitUntilSucceeds</methodname>
+     <methodname>wait_until_succeeds</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
@@ -282,7 +283,7 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>waitUntilFails</methodname>
+     <methodname>wait_until_fails</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
@@ -292,7 +293,7 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>waitForUnit</methodname>
+     <methodname>wait_for_unit</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
@@ -302,7 +303,7 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>waitForFile</methodname>
+     <methodname>wait_for_file</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
@@ -312,7 +313,7 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>waitForOpenPort</methodname>
+     <methodname>wait_for_open_port</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
@@ -323,7 +324,7 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>waitForClosedPort</methodname>
+     <methodname>wait_for_closed_port</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
@@ -333,7 +334,7 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>waitForX</methodname>
+     <methodname>wait_for_x</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
@@ -343,13 +344,13 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>waitForText</methodname>
+     <methodname>wait_for_text</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Wait until the supplied regular expressions matches the textual contents
       of the screen by using optical character recognition (see
-      <methodname>getScreenText</methodname>).
+      <methodname>get_screen_text</methodname>).
      </para>
      <note>
       <para>
@@ -361,23 +362,23 @@ startAll;
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>waitForWindow</methodname>
+     <methodname>wait_for_window</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Wait until an X11 window has appeared whose name matches the given
-      regular expression, e.g., <literal>waitForWindow(qr/Terminal/)</literal>.
+      regular expression, e.g., <literal>wait_for_window("Terminal")</literal>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term>
-     <methodname>copyFileFromHost</methodname>
+     <methodname>copy_file_from_host</methodname>
     </term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Copies a file from host to machine, e.g.,
-      <literal>copyFileFromHost("myfile", "/etc/my/important/file")</literal>.
+      <literal>copy_file_from_host("myfile", "/etc/my/important/file")</literal>.
      </para>
      <para>
       The first argument is the file on the host. The file needs to be
@@ -397,8 +398,8 @@ startAll;
      </para>
      <para>
 <programlisting>
-$machine->systemctl("list-jobs --no-pager"); // runs `systemctl list-jobs --no-pager`
-$machine->systemctl("list-jobs --no-pager", "any-user"); // spawns a shell for `any-user` and runs `systemctl --user list-jobs --no-pager`
+machine.systemctl("list-jobs --no-pager") # runs `systemctl list-jobs --no-pager`
+machine.systemctl("list-jobs --no-pager", "any-user") # spawns a shell for `any-user` and runs `systemctl --user list-jobs --no-pager`
 </programlisting>
      </para>
     </listitem>
@@ -408,14 +409,14 @@ $machine->systemctl("list-jobs --no-pager", "any-user"); // spawns a shell for `
 
  <para>
   To test user units declared by <literal>systemd.user.services</literal> the
-  optional <literal>$user</literal> argument can be used:
+  optional <literal>user</literal> argument can be used:
 <programlisting>
-$machine->start;
-$machine->waitForX;
-$machine->waitForUnit("xautolock.service", "x-session-user");
+machine.start()
+machine.wait_for_x()
+machine.wait_for_unit("xautolock.service", "x-session-user")
 </programlisting>
-  This applies to <literal>systemctl</literal>, <literal>getUnitInfo</literal>,
-  <literal>waitForUnit</literal>, <literal>startJob</literal> and
-  <literal>stopJob</literal>.
+  This applies to <literal>systemctl</literal>, <literal>get_unit_info</literal>,
+  <literal>wait_for_unit</literal>, <literal>start_job</literal> and
+  <literal>stop_job</literal>.
  </para>
 </section>