Working with Expect script on windows environment
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Expect and windows xp
[if you know about Expect, you can jump your interested area]
Introduction
In wikipedia, about expect «Expect is a Unix automation and testing tool, written by Don Libes as an extension to the Tcl scripting language, for interactive applications such as telnet, ftp, passwd, fsck, rlogin, tip, ssh, and others. It uses Unix pseudo terminals to wrap up subprocesses transparently, allowing the automation of arbitrary applications that are accessed over a terminal. With Tk, interactive applications can be wrapped in X11 GUIs.»
In simple words, Expect is very powerful scripting language to test complex protocol. Mostly used for conformance testing in networked environment. Expect can send the data across network and validate results with predefined values. For more details use official expect website @ expect.nist.gov. Working with expect is fun in windows environment.
Need of Expect in Windows
Now, let’s talk about the need of Expect in windows. Most of us have windows environment at work location (due to any reason). And, it is not worth to set up linux environment for Expect only. Moreover, with small steps, it is possible to set up expect on windows environment too.
Steps to start expect on Windows
So, follow following simple steps and your expect script will work as charm 🙂
- Download Active Tcl from http://www.activestate.com/activetcl/downloads/
- Install (Typically @ c:/Tcl/ directory)
- Go to Bin directory in Command prompt (Start > Run > commad > cd c:\Tcl\bin)
- (only required if you use proxy) teacup proxy
(e.g. teacup proxy myproxy.com 8080)
Convert Expect file in windows format
Now we have expect installed and we need to convert expect file into windows format. which is infect more simple. It is optional but good idea to convert extension to .tcl.
We need to add following lines @ beginning of expect file.
Running expect file in windows
Go to command prompt and navigate to folder where you kept your expect script.
Run using tclsh85.exe file as follows.
Expect on windows downloads
There are multiple efforts and products offering expect for MS Windows.
Gordon Chaffee ported Expect 5.21r1b1 . Binary and source are available at [L1 ][L2 ], and also present in MyrmecoX (?). This corresponds to Tcl version 8.0.
A port of Expect (based off 5.43) was available from ActiveState [L3 ], included in ActiveTcl 8.4.11.1 or later. Due to discontinuation of Teapot support on ActiveTcl, Expect is now de facto unavailable for ActiveTcl. Available Tcl packages on ActiveState website are yet to be updated accordingly, and may be misleading.
It could get interact if someone really needs it. All that’s needed is lots of development time and good verification test cases. — DG
cygwin’s Expect works fine under Cygwin as long as what you’re expect’ing upon is a cygwin application. It does not work with normal/native Win32 console applications. — Andreas Kupries [2001-sep-20]
During the early winter 2001-2002, Telindustrie LLC briefly supported David Gravereaux’s work to port 8.4 to Windows. Davy’s pretty much the world’s most knowledgeable person about what this will involve. He writes,
The windows specific code is already in the official repository off on a branch [L4 ]
There are lots of ways this could go. Perl (and Python?) people might help out with Expect, and Win* expertise perhaps would be part of the package. Also interesting is a comp.lang.tcl exchange [L5 ] between Jiang Wu and Jeffrey Hobbs; note mention of how more of Expect might move into the Tcl core.
[Why and how it doesn’t work for Win95. Problems with interact.] [Experience with Win2000.] [ Pure-Tcl telnet available—this sometimes suffices.]
[Expect 5.25/Tcl 7.6 for Japanese.] [5.31/8.2 as source.]
[ Tony Summerfelt’s been mostly successful with Expect under Win2000.]
Is there a need for a trap to receive the «signal» when Expect is used as a Windows service? [L6 ]
IMO, No. The windows model provides this and the «shell» being used for the service control should get «going down» notices and hopefully «do the right thing». If expect.exe knows nothing for being a windows service, for which it shouldn’t being a CLI shell, one should build a shell with all the needed service parts to get the notifications they need. See tclsvc — Tcl as an NT Service — DG
LV Sometimes people talk about wanting Expect running under Windows, but it turns out that they really are wanting to drive GUI applications, which is a use for which Expect is not intended.
escargo 19 Apr 2005 — Using driving as a search produced (among others): Techniques for ‘driving’ Windows applications.
AM Expect for Windows as available in ActiveTcl 8.4.xx works very very nicely, but there is a caveat:
I have no idea why, but I really had trouble getting a simple expect script to run (exp_send did not work if you gave it an explicitly spawn ID, the whole program hung when the input from the spawned process was not a complete line — the very reason I needed Expect in the first place).
These problems are probably due to the way DOS-boxes work. It all works fine when you use wish.
LV What is a DOS-box?
DG: I think what AM is saying refers to executing commands from the system prompt. IOW:
cmd.exe is not needed! Just spawn ftp.exe. I think there’s a bug with how E4W tries to get text through cmd.exe but can’t for some reason (unknown).
SG: cmd.exe is not needed if you’re spawning an .exe file — it is necessary if you’re trying to spawn a .bat file. AIUI, there’s no way to use ActiveState’s expect with a bat file. The version of expect with cygwin seems to work with cmd.exe, however.
Njay: I had worked with expect for Windows before, but I recently was unable to get it working on a quad-core with XP. spawn simply doesn’t launch the process and doesn’t issue any error. Also tried the «open |» feature but there were some unexplainable quirks so, I started to think that a simple version of expect could be implemented in Tcl. So here it is; the limitations are plenty but for basic applications it should do the trick.
Njay: I did a minor update on the expect proc above and added the pause proc. This code is a lib.
AMG: What does [send_user] do? Can’t it just be «puts $args»?
send_user takes care that the arguments are evaluated in the caller’s context. It is written as if the default context could have variables that would hide the caller’s variables. Of course the client could have had that outcome by just using puts. send_user is «expected» to be in expect though.
RJ: There’s currently no version of Expect that works correctly with 64bit Windows 7 and above. Does anyone have time to get this working?
As I have investigated, «Expect» does NOT appear to be included in ActiveTCL v8.5 for windows (Installer name: ActiveTCL8.5.13.0.296436-win32-ix86-threded.exe). Could anyone please confirm that and/or update the relevant text.
Hi, the link to Gordon Chaffee’s Expect port in invalid(maybe outdated). Do you know what could be the right link now?
Expect for Windows Reference
Introduction
This command reference outlines the basic usage of Expect for Windows. It provides descriptions of the commands in the Expect package and some short examples of how these commands can be used.
In this document, «Expect» with an uppercase «E» refers to the Expect package while «expect» with a lowercase «e» refers to the expect command within the Expect package
For differences between the Windows and Unix versions of Expect, see Porting Expect Scripts to Windows in the Expect for Windows Usage section.
Usage
Expect for Windows is implemented as a Tcl package (as opposed to as a stand-alone executable). It must be called with a package require Expect statement. For example:
A Tutorial and Demos are available to show how to build Expect scripts in Tcl. A detailed guide on how to use Expect can be found in Using ActiveState Expect for Windows.
Commands
Expect uses Tcl (Tool Command Language). Tcl provides control flow, expression evaluation and several other features such as recursion, procedure definition, etc. Commands used here but not defined (e.g., set , if , exec ) are Tcl commands (described in the Tcl documentation). Expect supports additional commands, described below. Unless otherwise specified, commands return the empty string.
For quick reference, commands are listed alphabetically. New users may find it easier to start by reading the descriptions of exp_spawn , exp_send , and expect , interact ,—>in that order.
With the exception of the expect command, all commands listed are prefixed with «exp_» or «expect_». Though most of them can be called without these prefixes, they are generally used in the form presented in order to clearly differentiate them from other global commands in Tcl. The reason for the command name overlap is that Expect was the very first extension to Tcl, and several of the command names it uses were Expect commands before they were core Tcl commands.
This command closes the connection to the current process. Most interactive programs will detect EOF on their stdin and exit; thus exp_close usually suffices to kill the process as well. The -i flag declares the process to close corresponding to the named spawn_id.
The expect command will detect when the current process exits and implicitly do an exp_close . But if you kill the process by another method such as » exec kill $pid «, you will need to explicitly call exp_close .
The -onexec flag determines whether the spawn id will be closed in any new spawned processes or if the process is overlaid. To leave a spawn id open, use the value 0. A non-zero integer value will force the spawn closed (the default) in any new processes.
The -slave flag is not supported on Windows. On Unix systems, this closes the slave associated with the spawn id. (See » exp_spawn -pty «.) When the connection is closed, the slave is automatically closed as well if still open.
Regardless of whether the connection is closed implicitly or explicitly, you should call exp_wait to clear up the corresponding kernel process slot. The exp_close command does not call exp_wait since there is no guarantee that closing a process connection will cause it to exit. See exp_wait for more information.
The command exp_continue allows expect itself to continue executing rather than returning as it normally would. By default exp_continue resets the timeout timer. The -continue_timer flag prevents the timer from being restarted. See expect for more information.
Not applicable on Windows. On Unix systems, this disconnects a forked process from the terminal and continues running in the background.
controls a Tcl debugger allowing you to step through statements, set breakpoints, etc.
With no arguments, a 1 is returned if the debugger is not running, otherwise a 0 is returned.
With a 1 argument, the debugger is started. With a 0 argument, the debugger is stopped. If a 1 argument is preceded by the — now flag, the debugger is started immediately (i.e., in the middle of the debug command itself). Otherwise, the debugger is started with the next Tcl statement.
The debug command does not change any traps. Compare this to starting Expect with the -D flag (see above).
This command causes Expect to exit or otherwise prepare to do so.
The -onexit flag causes the next argument to be used as an exit handler. Without an argument, the current exit handler is returned.
The -noexit flag causes Expect to prepare to exit but stop short of actually returning control to the operating system. The user-defined exit handler is run as well as Expect’s own internal handlers. No further Expect commands should be executed. This is useful if you are running Expect with other Tcl extensions. The current interpreter remains (as does the main window in the Tk environment) so that other Tcl extensions can clean up. If Expect’s exp_exit is called again (however this might occur), the handlers are not rerun.
Upon exiting, all connections to spawned processes are closed. Closure will be detected as an EOF by spawned processes. The exp_exit command takes no other actions beyond what the normal _exit procedure does.
The status (or 0 if not specified) is returned as the exit status of Expect. The exp_exit command is implicitly executed if the end of the script is reached.
Not applicable on Windows. On Unix systems, this command creates a new copy of the current Expect process.
exp_fork returns 0 to the new (child) process and returns the process ID of the child process to the parent process. On failure (invariably due to lack of resources, e.g., swap space, memory), exp_fork returns -1 to the parent process, and no child process is created.
Forked processes exit via the exp_exit command, just like the original process. Forked processes are allowed to write to the log files. If you do not disable debugging or logging in most of the processes, the result can be confusing.
Some pty implementations may be confused by multiple readers and writers, even momentarily. Thus, it is safest to fork before spawning processes.
The exp_getpid command is deprecated. Tcl’s pid command should be used instead.
Not currently implemented on Windows. On Unix systems, exp_inter_return causes interact to cause a return in its caller.
Not currently implemented on Windows. On Unix systems, this command gives control of the current process to the user, so that keystrokes are sent to the current process, and the stdout and stderr of the current process are returned.
interpreter command is assumed, if the final body is missing.
If the arguments to the entire interact statement require more than one line, all the arguments may be «braced» into one so as to avoid terminating each line with a backslash. In this one case, the usual Tcl substitutions will occur despite the braces.
For example, the following command runs interact with the following string-body pairs defined: When ^Z is pressed, Expect is suspended. (The -reset flag restores the terminal modes.) When ^A is pressed, the user sees «you typed a control-A» and the process is sent a ^A. When $ is pressed, the user sees the date. When ^C is pressed, Expect exits. If «foo» is entered, the user sees «bar». When
is pressed, the Expect interpreter runs interactively.
In string-body pairs, strings are matched in the order they are listed as arguments. Strings that partially match are not sent to the current process in anticipation of the remainder coming. If characters are then entered such that there can no longer possibly be a match, only the part of the string will be sent to the process that cannot possibly begin another match. Thus, strings that are substrings of partial matches can match later, if the original strings that was attempting to be match ultimately fails.
By default, string matching is exact with no wild cards. (In contrast, the expect command uses globstyle patterns by default.) The -ex flag may be used to protect patterns that might otherwise match interact flags from doing so. Any pattern beginning with a «-» should be protected this way. (All strings starting with «-» are reserved for future options.)
The -re flag forces the string to be interpreted as a regexp-style pattern. In this case, matching substrings are stored in the variable interact_out similarly to the way expect stores its output in the variable expect_out . The -indices flag is similarly supported.
The pattern eof introduces an action that is executed upon end-of-file. A separate eof pattern may also follow the -output flag in which case it is matched if an eof is detected while writing output. The default eof action is «return», so that interact simply returns upon any EOF.
The pattern timeout introduces a timeout (in seconds) and action that is executed after no characters have been read for a given time. The timeout pattern applies to the most recently specified process. There is no default timeout. The special variable «timeout» (used by the expect command) has no affect on this timeout.
For example, the following statement could be used to autologout users who have not typed anything for an hour but who still get frequent system messages:
If the pattern is the keyword null , and nulls are allowed (via the remove_nulls command), the corresponding body is executed if a single ASCII 0 is matched. It is not possible to match 0 bytes via glob or regexp patterns.
Prefacing a pattern with the flag -iwrite causes the variable interact_out(spawn_id) to be set to the spawn_id which matched the pattern (or eof).
Actions such as break and continue cause control structures (i.e., for , proc ) to behave in the usual way. However, return causes interact to return to its caller, while inter_return causes interact to cause a return in its caller. For example, if «proc foo» called interact which then executed the action inter_return , proc foo would return. (This means that if interact calls interpreter interactively typing return will cause the interact to continue, while inter_return will cause the interact to return to its caller.)
During interact , raw mode is used so that all characters may be passed to the current process. If the current process does not catch job control signals, it will stop if sent a stop signal (by default ^Z). To restart it, send a continue signal (such as by » kill -CONT
«). If you really want to send a SIGSTOP to such a process (by ^Z), consider spawning csh first and then running your program. On the other hand, if you want to send a SIGSTOP to Expect itself, first call interpreter (perhaps by using an escape character), and then press ^Z.
String-body pairs can be used as a shorthand for avoiding having to enter the interpreter and execute commands interactively. The previous terminal mode is used while the body of a string-body pair is being executed.
For speed, actions execute in raw mode by default. The -reset flag resets the terminal to the mode it had before interact was executed (invariably, cooked mode). Note that characters entered when the mode is being switched may be lost (an unfortunate feature of the terminal driver on some systems). The only reason to use -reset is if your action depends on running in cooked mode.
The -echo flag sends characters that match the following pattern back to the process that generated them as each character is read. This may be useful when the user needs to see feedback from partially typed patterns.
If a pattern is being echoed but eventually fails to match, the characters are sent to the spawned process. If the spawned process then echoes them, the user will see the characters twice. -echo is probably only appropriate in situations where the user is unlikely to not complete the pattern. For example, the following excerpt is from rftp, the recursiveftp script, where the user is prompted to enter
l, to get, put, or list the current directory recursively. These are so far away from the normal ftp commands, that the user is unlikely to type
followed by anything else, except mistakenly, in which case, they’ll probably just ignore the result anyway.
The -nobuffer flag sends characters that match the following pattern on to the output process as characters are read.
This is useful when you wish to let a program echo back the pattern. For example, the following might be used to monitor where a person is dialing (a Hayes-style modem). Each time «atd» is seen the script logs the rest of the line.
During interact , previous use of log_user is ignored. In particular, interact will force its output to be logged (sent to the standard output) since it is presumed the user doesn’t wish to interact blindly.
The -o flag causes any following key-body pairs to be applied to the output of the current process. This can be useful, for example, when dealing with hosts that send unwanted characters during a telnet session.
By default, interact expects the user to be writing stdin and reading stdout of the Expect process itself. The -u flag (for «user») makes interact look for the user as the process named by its argument (which must be a spawned id).
This allows two unrelated processes to be joined together without using an explicit loop. To aid in debugging, Expect diagnostics always go to stderr (or stdout for certain logging and debugging information). For the same reason, the interpreter command will read interactively from stdin.
For example, the following fragment creates a login process. Then it dials the user (not shown), and finally connects the two together. Of course, any process may be substituted for login. A shell, for example, would allow the user to work without supplying an account and password.
To send output to multiple processes, list each spawn id list prefaced by a -output flag. Input for a group of output spawn ids may be determined by a spawn id list prefaced by a -input flag. (Both -input and -output may take lists in the same form as the -i flag in the expect command, except that any_spawn_id is not meaningful in interact .) All following flags and strings (or patterns) apply to this input until another -input flag appears. If no -input appears, -output implies «-input $user_spawn_id -output». (Similarly, with patterns that do not have -input .) If one -input is specified, it overrides $user_spawn_id. If a second -input is specified, it overrides $spawn_id. Additional -input flags may be specified.
The two implied input processes default to having their outputs specified as $spawn_id and $user_spawn_id (in reverse). If a -input flag appears with no -output flag, characters from that process are discarded.
The -i flag introduces a replacement for the current spawn_id when no other -input or -output flags are used. A -i flag implies a -o flag.
It is possible to change the processes that are being interacted with by using indirect spawn ids. (Indirect spawn ids are described in the section on the expect command.) Indirect spawn ids may be specified with the -i, -u, -input, or -output flags.
This causes further commands to send diagnostic information internal to Expect to stderr if value is nonzero. This output is disabled if value is 0. The diagnostic information includes every character received, and every attempt made to match the current output against the patterns.
If the optional file is supplied, all normal and debugging output is written to that file (regardless of the value of value). Any previous diagnostic output file is closed.
The -info flag causes exp_internal to return a description of the most recent non-info arguments given.
This command causes the user to be interactively prompted for Expect and Tcl commands. The result of each command is printed.
Actions such as break and continue cause control structures (i.e., for , proc ) to behave in the usual way. However return causes exp_interpreter to return to its caller, while exp_inter_return (not currently implemented in Expect for Windows) causes exp_interpreter to cause a return in its caller. For example, if » proc foo » called exp_interpreter , which then executed the action exp_inter_return , proc foo would return. Any other command causes exp_interpreter to continue prompting for new commands.
By default, the prompt contains two integers. The first integer describes the depth of the evaluation stack (i.e., how many times Tcl_Eval has been called). The second integer is the Tcl history identifier. The prompt can be set by defining a procedure called «prompt1» whose return value becomes the next prompt. If a statement has open quotes, parentheses, braces, or brackets, a secondary prompt (by default «+> «) is issued upon newline. The secondary prompt may be set by defining a procedure called «prompt2».
During exp_interpreter , cooked mode is used, even if its caller was using raw mode.
If stdin is closed, exp_interpreter will return unless the -eof flag is used, in which case the subsequent argument is invoked.
If a filename is provided, exp_log_file will record a transcript of the session (beginning at that point) in the file. The exp_log_file command will stop recording if no argument is given. Any previous log file is closed.
Instead of a filename, a Tcl file identifier may be provided by using the -open or -leaveopen flags. This is similar to the exp_spawn command.
The -a flag forces output to be logged that was suppressed by the exp_log_user command.
By default, the exp_log_file command appends to old files rather than truncating them, for the convenience of being able to turn logging off and on multiple times in one session. To truncate files, use the -noappend flag.
The -info flag causes exp_log_file to return a description of the most recent non-info arguments given.
By default, the send/expect dialogue is logged to stdout (and a log file if open). The logging to stdout is disabled by the command » exp_log_user 0 » and re-enabled by » exp_log_user 1 «. Logging to the log file is unchanged.
The -info flag causes log_user to return a description of the most recent non-info arguments given.
This command defines the size of the buffer (in bytes) used internally by expect . With no size argument, the current size is returned.
With the -d flag, the default size is set. (The initial default is 2000.) With the -i flag, the size is set for the named spawn id, otherwise it is set for the current process.
Not available on Windows. On Unix systems, this returns a Tcl file identifier that corresponds to the original spawn id. The file identifier can then be used as if it were opened by Tcl’s open command.
wait should not be executed.
The -leaveopen flag leaves the spawn id open for access through Expect commands. A wait must be executed on the spawn id.
Not applicable on Windows. On Unix systems, this executes program [args] in place of the current Expect program, which terminates.
This command defines whether parity should be retained or stripped from the output of spawned processes. If value is zero, parity is stripped, otherwise it is not stripped. With no value argument, the current value is returned.
With the -d flag, the default parity value is set. (The initial default is 1, i.e., parity is not stripped.) With the -i flag, the parity value is set for the named spawn id, otherwise it is set for the current process.
This command returns the process id corresponding to the currently spawned process. If the -i flag is used, the pid returned corresponds to that of the given spawn id.
This command defines whether nulls are retained or removed from the output of spawned processes before pattern matching or storing in the variable expect_out or interact_out. If value is 1, nulls are removed. If value is 0, nulls are not removed. With no value argument, the current value is returned.
With the -d flag, the default value is set. (The initial default is 1, i.e., nulls are removed.) With the -i flag, the value is set for the named spawn id, otherwise it is set for the current process.
Whether or not nulls are removed, Expect will record null bytes to the log and stdout.
Sends string to the current process. For example, this command will send the characters, h e l l o w o r l d to the current process:
Tcl includes a printf -like command called format , which can build arbitrarily complex strings.
Characters are sent immediately, although programs with line-buffered input will not read the characters until a return character is sent. A return character is denoted «\r».
The — flag forces the next argument to be interpreted as a string rather than a flag. Any string can be preceded by «—» whether or not it actually looks like a flag. This provides a reliable mechanism to specify variable strings without being confused by those that accidentally look like flags. (All strings starting with «-» are reserved for future options.)
The -i flag declares that the string be sent to the named spawn_id. If the spawn_id is user_spawn_id, and the terminal is in raw mode, newlines in the string are translated to return-newline sequences so that they appear as if the terminal was in cooked mode. The -raw flag disables this translation.
The -null flag sends null characters (0 bytes). By default, one null is sent. An integer may follow the -null to indicate how many nulls to send.
The -break flag is not available on Windows. On Unix systems, this flag generates a break condition. This only makes sense if the spawn id refers to a tty device opened via «exp_spawn -open». If you have spawned a process such as tip, you should use tip’s convention for generating a break.
The -s flag forces output to be sent «slowly», thus avoiding the common situation where a computer outtypes an input buffer that was designed for a human who would never outtype the same buffer. This output is controlled by the value of the variable «send_slow» which takes a two-element list. The first element is an integer that describes the number of bytes to send atomically. The second element is a real number that sets the number of seconds by which the atomic sends must be separated. For example, «set send_slow <10 .001>» would force «send -s» to send strings with 1 millisecond in between each 10 characters sent.
The -h flag forces output to be sent (somewhat) like a human actually typing. Human-like delays appear between the characters. (The algorithm is based upon a Weibull distribution, with modifications to suit this particular application.) This output is controlled by the value of the variable «send_human», which takes a five-element list:
- The first two elements are the average interarrival time of characters in seconds:
- The first is used by default.
- The second is used at word endings, to simulate the subtle pauses that occasionally occur at such transitions.
- The third parameter is a measure of variability where .1 is quite variable, 1 is reasonably variable, and 10 is quite invariable. The extremes are 0 to infinity.
- The last two parameters are, respectively, a minimum and maximum interarrival time. The minimum and maximum are used last and «clip» the final time. The ultimate average can be quite different from the given average if the minimum and maximum clip enough values.
As an example, the following command emulates a fast and consistent typist:
The following might be more suitable after a hangover:
Note that errors are not simulated, although you can set up error correction situations yourself by embedding mistakes and corrections in an exp_send argument.
The flags for sending null characters, for sending breaks, for forcing slow output and for human-style output are mutually exclusive. Only the one specified last will be used. Furthermore, no string argument can be specified with the flags for sending null characters or breaks.
It is a good idea to precede the first exp_send to a process by an expect . The expect command will wait for the process to start, while exp_send cannot. In particular, if the first exp_send completes before the process starts running, you run the risk of having your data ignored. In situations where interactive programs offer no initial prompt, you can precede exp_send by a delay as in:
Expect for Windows does not implement a parser for VT100 codes for special keypress codes such as «arrow up», F1, Home, etc.
This command is like exp_send , except that the output is sent to stderr rather than the current process.
This command is like exp_send , except that the string is only sent to the log file (see exp_log_file .) The arguments are ignored if no log file is open.
This command is like exp_send , except that the output is sent to /dev/tty rather than the current process.
This command is like exp_send , except that the output is sent to stdout rather than the current process.
This command causes the script to sleep for the given number of seconds. Seconds may be a decimal number. Interrupts (and Tk events if you are using Expectk) are processed while Expect sleeps. It is better to use Tcl’s after command instead.
This command creates a new process running program args. Its stdin, stdout and stderr are connected to Expect, so that they may be read and written by other Expect commands. The connection is broken by exp_close or by the process itself closing any of the file identifiers.
When a process is started by exp_spawn , the variable spawn_id is set to a descriptor referring to that process. The process described by spawn_id is considered the current process. The spawn_id variable may be read or written, in effect providing job control.
user_spawn_id is a global variable containing a descriptor that refers to the user. For example, when spawn_id is set to this value, expect behaves like expect_user .
error_spawn_id is a global variable containing a descriptor that refers to the standard error. For example, when spawn_id is set to this value, exp_send behaves like exp_send_error .
tty_spawn_id is a global variable containing a descriptor that refers to /dev/tty. If /dev/tty does not exist (such as in a cron, at, or batch script), then tty_spawn_id is not defined. This may be tested as:
exp_spawn returns the Unix process id. If no process is spawned, 0 is returned. The variable spawn_out(slave,name) is set to the name of the pty slave device.
By default, exp_spawn echoes the command name and arguments. The -noecho flag stops exp_spawn from doing this.
The -console flag causes console output to be redirected to the spawned process. This is not supported on all systems.
Internally, exp_spawn uses a pty, initialized the same way as the user’s tty. This is further initialized so that all settings are «sane» (according to stty(1)). If the variable stty_init is defined, it is interpreted in the style of stty arguments as further configuration. For example, » set stty_init raw » will cause further spawned processes’s terminals to start in raw mode. The -nottycopy flag skips the initialization based on the user’s tty. The -nottyinit flag skips the «sane» initialization.
Normally, exp_spawn takes little time to execute. If you notice spawn taking a significant amount of time, it is probably encountering ptys that are wedged. A number of tests are run on ptys to avoid entanglements with errant processes. (These take 10 seconds per wedged pty.) Running Expect with the -d option will show if Expect is encountering many ptys in odd states. If you cannot kill the processes to which these ptys are attached, your only recourse may be to reboot.
If a program cannot be spawned successfully because exec fails (e.g. when the program doesn’t exist), an error message will be returned by the next expect command as if the program had run and produced the error message as output. This behavior is a natural consequence of the implementation of exp_spawn . Internally, spawn forks, after which the spawned process has no way to communicate with the original Expect process except by communication via the spawn_id.
The -open flag causes the next argument to be interpreted as a Tcl file identifier (i.e., returned by exp_open .) The spawn id can then be used as if it were a spawned process. (The file identifier should no longer be used.) This lets you treat raw devices, files, and pipelines as spawned processes without using a pty. 0 is returned to indicate there is no associated process. When the connection to the spawned process is closed, so is the Tcl file identifier. The -leaveopen flag is similar to -open except that -leaveopen causes the file identifier to be left open even after the spawn id is closed.
The -pty flag causes a pty to be opened but no process to be spawned. 0 is returned to indicate there is no associated process. spawn_id is set as usual.
The variable spawn_out(slave,fd) is set to a file identifier corresponding to the pty slave. It can be closed using «close -slave».
The -ignore flag is not implemented on Windows. On Unix systems, this flag names a signal to be ignored in the spawned process. Otherwise, signals get the default behavior. Signals are named as in the exp_trap command, except that each signal requires a separate flag.
The -environment flag takes a list of name/value pairs in the form array get would return to represent the environment to use.
The -directory flag sets the starting directory for the spawned process.
The -trap flag is not available on Windows.
This command causes following statements to be printed before being executed. (Tcl’s trace command traces variables.) level indicates how far down in the call stack to trace. For example, the following command runs Expect while tracing the first 4 levels of calls, but none below that.
The -info flag causes strace to return a description of the most recent non-info arguments given.
This command changes terminal modes similarly to the external stty command. On Windows, exp_stty does not do redirection or accept the rows or columns options.
By default, the controlling terminal is accessed. On Unix systems, other terminals can be accessed by appending » raw or -cooked put the terminal into raw mode. The arguments -raw or cooked put the terminal into cooked mode. The arguments echo and -echo put the terminal into echo and noecho mode respectively.
The following example illustrates how to temporarily disable echoing. This could be used in otherwise automatic scripts to avoid embedding passwords.
Not applicable on Windows — use Tcl’s exec command instead. On Unix systems, this gives args to sh as input, just as if it had been typed as a command from a terminal. Expect waits until the shell terminates. The return status from sh is handled the same way that exec handles its return status.
exec which redirects stdin and stdout to the script, exp_system performs no redirection (other than that indicated by the string itself). Thus, it is possible to use programs which must talk directly to /dev/tty. For the same reason, the results of exp_system are not recorded in the log.
This command returns a timestamp. With no arguments, the number of seconds since the epoch is returned. Use Tcl’s clock command instead.
The -format flag introduces a string that is returned, but with substitutions made according to the POSIX rules for strftime. For example %a is replaced by an abbreviated weekday name (i.e., Sat). Others are:
- %a — abbreviated weekday name
- %A — full weekday name
- %b — abbreviated month name
- %B — full month name
- %c — date-time as in: Wed Oct 6 11:45:56 1993
- %d — day of the month (01-31)
- %H — hour (00-23)
- %I — hour (01-12)
- %j — day (001-366)
- %m — month (01-12)
- %M — minute (00-59)
- %p — am or pm
- %S — second (00-61)
- %u — day (1-7, Monday is first day of week)
- %U — week (00-53, first Sunday is first day of week one)
- %V — week (01-53, ISO 8601 style)
- %w — day (0-6)
- %W — week (00-53, first Monday is first day of week one)
- %x — date-time as in: Wed Oct 6 1993
- %X — time as in: 23:59:59
- %y — year (00-99)
- %Y — year as in: 1993
- %Z — timezone (or nothing if not determinable)
- %% — a bare percent sign
Other % specifications are undefined. Other characters will be passed through untouched. Only the C locale is supported.
The -seconds flag introduces a number of seconds since the epoch to be used as a source from which to format. Otherwise, the current time is used.
The -gmt flag forces timestamp output to use the GMT timezone. With no flag, the local timezone is used.
This causes the given command to be executed upon future receipt of any of the given signals. The command is executed in the global scope. If command is absent, the signal action is returned. If command is the string SIG_IGN, the signals are ignored. If command is the string SIG_DFL, the signals are reset to the system default. The signals argument is either a single signal or a list of signals.
Signal manipulation beyond the seven signals abstracted via ANSI’s signal.h is not supported on Windows, nor are Windows-specific ones such as CTRL_SHUTDOWN_EVENT .
With no arguments (or the argument -number ), exp_trap returns the signal number of the trap command currently being executed.
The -code flag uses the return code of the command in place of whatever code Tcl was about to return when the command originally started running.
The -interp flag causes the command to be evaluated using the interpreter active at the time the command started running, rather than when the trap was declared.
The -name flag causes the exp_trap command to return the signal name of the trap command currently being executed.
The -max flag causes the exp_trap command to return the largest signal number that can be set.
For example, the command «exp_trap
By default, SIGINT (which can usually be generated by pressing ^C) and SIGTERM cause Expect to exit. This is due to the following trap, created by default when Expect starts.
If you use the -D flag to start the debugger, SIGINT is redefined to start the interactive debugger. This is due to the following trap:
The debugger trap can be changed by setting the environment variable EXPECT_DEBUG_INIT to a new trap command.
You can, of course, override both of these just by adding trap commands to your script. In particular, if you have your own » exp_trap exit SIGINT «, this will override the debugger trap. This is useful if you want to prevent users from getting to the debugger at all.
If you want to define your own trap on SIGINT but still trap to the debugger when it is running, use:
Alternatively, you can trap to the debugger using some other signal.
The exp_trap command will not let you override the action for SIGALRM as this is used internally to Expect. The disconnect command sets SIGALRM to SIG_IGN (ignore). You can re-enable this as long as you disable it during subsequent spawn commands.
This command is useful for assuring that the script is compatible with the current version of Expect, however, the more modern » package require Expect [version] » command should be used instead.
exp_version returns an error if the major numbers do not match.
Second is the minor number. Scripts written for a version with a greater minor number than the current version may depend upon some new feature and might not run. exp_version returns an error if the major numbers match, but the script minor number is greater than that of the running Expect.
Third is a number that plays no part in the version comparison. However, it is incremented when the Expect software distribution is changed in any way, such as by additional documentation or optimization. It is reset to 0 upon each new minor version.
With the -exit flag, Expect prints an error and exits if the version is out of date.
This command delays until a spawned process (or the current process if none is named) terminates.
exp_wait normally returns a list of four integers. The first integer is the pid of the process that was waited upon. The second integer is the corresponding spawn id. The third integer is -1 if an operating system error occurred, or 0 otherwise. If the third integer was 0, the fourth integer is the status returned by the spawned process. If the third integer was -1, the fourth integer is the value of errno set by the operating system. The global variable errorCode is also set.
[exp_wait] is limited in the same way for signal exits, as is the core’s Tcl_WaitPid() which it uses.
Additional elements may appear at the end of the return value from exp_wait . An optional fifth element identifies a class of information. Currently, the only possible value for this element is CHILDKILLED in which case the next two values are the C-style signal name and a short textual description.
The -i flag declares the process to wait corresponding to the named spawn_id (NOT the process id). Inside a SIGCHLD handler, it is possible to wait for any spawned process by using the spawn id -1.
The -nowait flag causes the wait to return immediately with the indication of a successful wait. When the process exits (later), it will automatically disappear without the need for an explicit wait.
The exp_wait command may also be used wait for a forked process using the arguments «-i -1». Unlike its use with spawned processes, this command can be executed at any time. There is no control over which process is reaped. However, the return value can be checked for the process id.
This command waits until one of the patterns matches the output of a spawned process, a specified time period has passed, or an end-of-file is seen. If the final body is empty, it may be omitted.
Patterns from the most recent expect_before command are implicitly used before any other patterns. Patterns from the most recent expect_after command are implicitly used after any other patterns.
If the arguments to the entire expect statement require more than one line, all arguments may be «braced» into one so as to avoid terminating each line with a backslash. In this one case, the usual Tcl substitutions will occur despite the braces.
If a pattern is the keyword eof , the corresponding body is executed upon end-of-file. If a pattern is the keyword timeout , the corresponding body is executed upon timeout. If no timeout keyword is used, an implicit null action is executed upon timeout. The default timeout period is 10 seconds but may be set, for example to 30, by the command «set timeout 30». An infinite timeout may be designated by the value -1. If a pattern is the keyword default , the corresponding body is executed upon either timeout or end-of-file.
If a pattern matches, then the corresponding body is executed. The expect command returns the result of the body (or the empty string if no pattern matched). In the event that multiple patterns match, the one appearing first is used to select a body.
Each time new output arrives, it is compared to each of the patterns in the order they are listed. Thus, you may test for absence of a match by making the last pattern something guaranteed to appear, such as a prompt. In situations where there is no prompt, you must use timeout as you would if you were interacting with the program manually.
Patterns are specified in three ways. By default, patterns are specified as with Tcl’s string match command. (Such patterns are also similar to C-shell regular expressions usually referred to as «glob» patterns). The -gl flag may be used to protect patterns that might otherwise match expect flags from doing so. Any pattern beginning with a «-» should be protected this way. (All strings starting with «-» are reserved for future options.)
For example, the following fragment looks for a successful login. Note that abort is presumed to be a procedure defined elsewhere in the script.
Quotes are necessary on the fourth pattern since it contains a space, which would otherwise separate the pattern from the action. Patterns with the same action (such as the 3rd and 4th) require listing the actions again. This can be avoided by using regexp-style patterns (see below). More information on forming glob patterns can be found in the Tcl manual.
Regexp-style patterns follow the syntax defined by Tcl’s regexp (short for «regular expression») command. An introduction to writing regular expressions can be found in the Regular Expression Primer. regexp patterns are introduced with the flag -re . The previous example can be rewritten using a regexp as:
Both types of patterns are «unanchored». This means that patterns do not have to match the entire string, but can begin and end the match anywhere in the string (as long as everything else matches). Use ^ to match the beginning of a string, and $ to match the end. Note that if you do not wait for the end of a string, your responses can easily end up in the middle of the string as they are echoed from the spawned process. While still producing correct results, the output can look unnatural. Thus, use of $ is encouraged if you can exactly describe the characters at the end of a string.
Note that in many editors, the ^ and $ match the beginning and end of lines respectively. However, because expect is not line oriented, these characters match the beginning and end of the data (as opposed to lines) currently in the expect matching buffer. (Also, see the note below on «system indigestion.»)
The -ex flag causes the pattern to be matched as an «exact» string. No interpretation of *, ^, etc is made (although the usual Tcl conventions must still be observed). Exact patterns are always unanchored.
The -nocase flag causes uppercase characters of the output to compare as if they were lowercase characters. The pattern is not affected.
While reading output, more than 2000 bytes can force earlier bytes to be «forgotten». This may be changed with the function match_max . (Note that excessively large values can slow down the pattern matcher.) If patlist is full_buffer , the corresponding body is executed if match_max bytes have been received and no other patterns have matched. Whether or not the full_buffer keyword is used, the forgotten characters are written to expect_out(buffer).
If patlist is the keyword null , and nulls are allowed (via the remove_nulls command), the corresponding body is executed if a single ASCII 0 is matched. It is not possible to match 0 bytes via glob or regexp patterns.
Upon matching a pattern (or eof or full_buffer), any matching and previously unmatched output is saved in the variable expect_out(buffer). Up to 9 regexp substring matches are saved in the variables expect_out(1,string) through expect_out(9,string). If the -indices flag is used before a pattern, the starting and ending indices (in a form suitable for lrange ) of the 10 strings are stored in the variables expect_out(X,start) and expect_out(X,end) where X is a digit, corresponds to the substring position in the buffer. 0 refers to strings that matched the entire pattern and is generated for glob patterns as well as regexp patterns. For example, if a process has produced output of «abcdefgh\n», the result of:
is as if the following statements had executed:
and «efgh\n» is left in the output buffer. If a process produced the output «abbbcabkkkka\n», the result of:
is as if the following statements had executed:
and «a\n» is left in the output buffer. The pattern «*» (and -re «.*») will flush the output buffer without reading any more output from the process.
Normally, the matched output is discarded from Expect’s internal buffers. This may be prevented by prefixing a pattern with the -notransfer flag. This flag is especially useful in experimenting (and can be abbreviated to » -not » for convenience).
The spawn id associated with the matching output (or eof or full_buffer) is stored in expect_out(spawn_id).
The -timeout flag causes the current expect command to use the following value as a timeout instead of using the value of the timeout variable.
By default, patterns are matched against output from the current process, however the -i flag declares the output from the named spawn_id list be matched against any following patterns (up to the next -i ). The spawn_id list should either be a whitespace separated list of spawn_ids or a variable referring to such a list of spawn_ids.
For example, the following example waits for «connected» from the current process, or «busy», «failed» or «invalid password» from the spawn_id named by $proc2.
The value of the global variable any_spawn_id may be used to match patterns to any spawn_ids that are named with all other — i flags in the current expect command. The spawn_id from a -i flag with no associated pattern (i.e., followed immediately by another -i ) is made available to any other patterns in the same expect command associated with any_spawn_id.
The -i flag may also name a global variable, in which case the variable is read for a list of spawn ids. The variable is reread whenever it changes. This provides a way of changing the I/O source while the command is in execution. Spawn ids provided this way are called «indirect» spawn ids.
Actions such as break and continue cause control structures (i.e., for , proc ) to behave in the usual way. The command exp_continue allows expect itself to continue executing rather than returning as it normally would.
This is useful for avoiding explicit loops or repeated expect statements. The following example is part of a fragment to automate rlogin. The exp_continue avoids having to write a second expect statement (to look for the prompt again) if the rlogin prompts for a password.
For example, the following fragment might help a user guide an interaction that is already totally automated. In this case, the terminal is put into raw mode. If the user presses «+», a variable is incremented. If «p» is pressed, several returns are sent to the process, perhaps to poke it in some way. In each case, the exp_continue allows the current expect to continue pattern matching after executing the current action.
By default, exp_continue resets the timeout timer. The timer is not restarted, if exp_continue is called with the -continue_timer flag.
This command works identically to the expect_before command except that if patterns from both expect and expect_after can match, the expect pattern is used.
This command takes the same arguments as expect , however it returns immediately. Patterns are tested whenever new input arrives. The patterns timeout and default are meaningless to expect_background and are silently discarded. Otherwise, the expect_background command uses expect_before and expect_after patterns just like expect does.
When expect_background actions are being evaluated, background processing for the same spawn id is blocked. Background processing is unblocked when the action completes. While background processing is blocked, it is possible to do a (foreground) expect on the same spawn id.
It is not possible to execute an expect while an expect_background is unblocked. The expect_background for a particular spawn id is deleted by declaring a new expect_background with the same spawn id. Declaring expect_background with no pattern removes the given spawn id from the ability to match patterns in the background.
This command takes the same arguments as expect does, however it returns immediately. Pattern-action pairs from the most recent expect_before with the same spawn id are implicitly added to any following expect commands. If a pattern matches, it is treated as if it had been specified in the expect command itself, and the associated body is executed in the context of the expect command. If patterns from both expect_before and expect can match, the expect_before pattern is used.
If no pattern is specified, the spawn id is not checked for any patterns.
Unless overridden by a -i flag, expect_before patterns match against the spawn id defined at the time that the expect_before command was executed (not when its pattern is matched).
The -info flag causes expect_before to return the current specifications of what patterns it will match. By default, it reports on the current spawn id. An optional spawn id specification may be given for information on that spawn id. For example
At the most, one spawn id specification may be given. The flag -indirect suppresses direct spawn ids that come only from indirect specifications.
Instead of a spawn id specification, the flag -all will cause -info to report on all spawn ids.
The output of the -info flag can be reused as the argument to expect_before .
This command is like expect but it reads characters from /dev/tty (i.e. keystrokes from the user). By default, reading is performed in cooked mode. Thus, lines must end with a return in order for expect to see them. This may be changed via exp_stty .
This command is like expect but it reads characters from stdin (i.e. keystrokes from the user). By default, reading is performed in cooked mode. Thus, lines must end with a return in order for expect to see them. This may be changed via exp_stty .
Libraries
Expect automatically knows about two built-in libraries for Expect scripts. These are defined by the directories named in the variables exp_library and exp_exec_library . Both are meant to contain utility files that can be used by other scripts. exp_library contains architecture-independent files. exp_exec_library contains architecture-dependent files. Depending on your system, both directories may be totally empty. The existence of the file $exp_exec_library/catbuffers describes whether your /bin/cat buffers by default.
Top CreateFile(«CONOUT$») fails when asking for the existing tty channel, there is no recourse in the generic layer to create one. Only a single console window is allowed per process on Windows. This affects exp_send_tty and expect_tty , and is a prerequisite for enabling exp_interact .
The following behaviors are not available at this time:
- The Expect clib is not available at this time.
- An Expect channel can not be moved to a different thread with [thread::transfer] this is a limitation of Tcl’s channel API.
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