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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-15 19:43:11 +0000
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+.TH AUTOEXPECT 1 "30 June 1995"
+.SH NAME
+autoexpect \- generate an Expect script from watching a session
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B autoexpect
+[
+.I args
+]
+[
+.I program args...
+]
+.br
+.SH INTRODUCTION
+
+autoexpect watches you interacting with another program and creates an
+Expect script that reproduces your interactions. For straightline
+scripts, autoexpect saves substantial time over writing scripts by
+hand. Even if you are an Expect expert, you will find it convenient
+to use autoexpect to automate the more mindless parts of interactions.
+It is much easier to cut/paste hunks of autoexpect scripts together
+than to write them from scratch. And if you are a beginner, you may
+be able to get away with learning nothing more about Expect than how
+to call autoexpect.
+
+The simplest way to use autoexpect is to call it from the command line
+with no arguments. For example:
+
+ % autoexpect
+
+By default, autoexpect spawns a shell for you. Given a program name
+and arguments, autoexpect spawns that program. For example:
+
+ % autoexpect ftp ftp.cme.nist.gov
+
+Once your spawned program is running, interact normally. When you
+have exited the shell (or program that you specified), autoexpect will
+create a new script for you. By default, autoexpect writes the new
+script to "script.exp". You can override this with the \-f flag
+followed by a new script name.
+
+The following example runs "ftp ftp.cme.nist.gov" and stores the
+resulting Expect script in the file "nist".
+.nf
+
+ % autoexpect \-f nist ftp ftp.cme.nist.gov
+
+.fi
+It is important to understand that
+autoexpect does not guarantee a working script because it necessarily
+has to guess about certain things \- and occasionally it guesses wrong.
+However, it is usually very easy to identify and fix these problems.
+The typical problems are:
+.RS
+.TP 4
+\(bu
+Timing. A surprisingly large number of programs (rn, ksh, zsh,
+telnet, etc.) and devices (e.g., modems) ignore keystrokes that arrive
+"too quickly" after prompts. If you find your new script hanging up
+at one spot, try adding a short sleep just before the previous send.
+
+You can force this behavior throughout by overriding the variable
+"force_conservative" near the beginning of the generated script. This
+"conservative" mode makes autoexpect automatically pause briefly (one
+tenth of a second) before sending each character. This pacifies every
+program I know of.
+
+This conservative mode is useful if you just want to quickly reassure
+yourself that the problem is a timing one (or if you really don't care
+about how fast the script runs). This same mode can be forced before
+script generation by using the \-c flag.
+
+Fortunately, these timing spots are rare. For example, telnet ignores
+characters only after entering its escape sequence. Modems only
+ignore characters immediately after connecting to them for the first
+time. A few programs exhibit this behavior all the time but typically
+have a switch to disable it. For example, rn's \-T flag disables this
+behavior.
+
+The following example starts autoexpect in conservative
+mode.
+.nf
+
+ autoexpect \-c
+
+.fi
+The \-C flag defines a key to toggle conservative mode.
+The following example starts autoexpect (in non-conservative
+mode) with ^L as the toggle. (Note that the ^L is
+entered literally - i.e., enter a real control-L).
+.nf
+
+ autoexpect \-C ^L
+
+.fi
+The following example starts autoexpect in conservative
+mode with ^L as the toggle.
+.nf
+
+ autoexpect \-c \-C ^L
+
+.fi
+.TP
+\(bu
+Echoing. Many program echo characters. For example, if you type
+"more" to a shell, what autoexpect actually sees is:
+.nf
+
+ you typed 'm',
+ computer typed 'm',
+ you typed 'o',
+ computer typed 'o',
+ you typed 'r',
+ computer typed 'r',
+ ...
+.fi
+
+Without specific knowledge of the program, it is impossible to know if
+you are waiting to see each character echoed before typing the next.
+If autoexpect sees characters being echoed, it assumes that it can
+send them all as a group rather than interleaving them the way they
+originally appeared. This makes the script more pleasant to read.
+However, it could conceivably be incorrect if you really had to wait
+to see each character echoed.
+
+.TP
+\(bu
+Change. Autoexpect records every character from the interaction in
+the script. This is desirable because it gives you the ability to
+make judgements about what is important and what can be replaced with
+a pattern match.
+
+On the other hand, if you use commands whose output differs from run
+to run, the generated scripts are not going to be correct. For
+example, the "date" command always produces different output. So
+using the date command while running autoexpect is a sure way to
+produce a script that will require editing in order for it to work.
+
+The \-p flag puts autoexpect into "prompt mode". In this mode,
+autoexpect will only look for the the last line of program output \-
+which is usually the prompt. This handles the date problem (see
+above) and most others.
+
+The following example starts autoexpect in prompt mode.
+.nf
+
+ autoexpect \-p
+
+.fi
+The \-P flag defines a key to toggle prompt mode. The following
+example starts autoexpect (in non-prompt mode) with ^P as the toggle.
+Note that the ^P is entered literally - i.e., enter a real control-P.
+.nf
+
+ autoexpect \-P ^P
+
+.fi
+The following example starts autoexpect in prompt mode with ^P as the toggle.
+.nf
+
+ autoexpect \-p \-P ^P
+
+.fi
+.SH OTHER FLAGS
+The
+.B \-quiet
+flag disables informational messages produced by autoexpect.
+
+The
+.B \-Q
+flag names a quote character which can be used to enter characters
+that autoexpect would otherwise consume because they are used as toggles.
+
+The following example shows a number of flags with quote used to
+provide a way of entering the toggles literally.
+.nf
+
+ autoexpect \-P ^P \-C ^L \-Q ^Q
+
+.fi
+.SH STYLE
+
+I don't know if there is a "style" for Expect programs but autoexpect
+should definitely not be held up as any model of style. For example,
+autoexpect uses features of Expect that are intended specifically for
+computer-generated scripting. So don't try to faithfully write
+scripts that appear as if they were generated by autoexpect. This is
+not useful.
+
+On the other hand, autoexpect scripts do show some worthwhile things.
+For example, you can see how any string must be quoted in order to use
+it in a Tcl script simply by running the strings through autoexpect.
+
+.SH SEE ALSO
+.I
+"Exploring Expect: A Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs"
+\fRby Don Libes,
+O'Reilly and Associates, January 1995.
+.SH AUTHOR
+Don Libes, National Institute of Standards and Technology
+
+.B expect
+and
+.B autoexpect
+are in the public domain.
+NIST and I would
+appreciate credit if these programs or parts of them are used.
+