Expect expect beginner question

Hi everybody,

I am new to Expect and struggle a little bit with one of the main
commands. I wrote a small script, and it doesn't work. What is wrong?
script
start---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------

#!/usr/bin/expect -f
spawn /bin/bash
...
send -- "test -d /usr\r" #does the directory /usr exist?
expect "test -d /usr\r"
send -- "echo $?" #make the return value visible

#and here is the non working code
expect {
1 { send_user "Directory doesn't exist" }
0 { send_user "Directory exist }

}

expect eof

script
end------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------

The expect part doesn't choose the right answer. In fact, it looks
like expect has no influence at all.

The operation system is Slackware Linux and the version of Expect is
5.43.0

Thank you very much for your help.

Saludos
Pancho

On Jun 7, 11:09 am, expectquest@safe-mail.net wrote:

Why not use the built-in Tcl "file" command to test
for it? For example:

if [file isdirectory /usr] { do something }

Thank you for answering Why Tea,

sorry, the example is bad. I want to check whether a directory on a
different computer is available. Okay, another example, I hope, that's
better *g*.

script
start---------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------

#!/usr/bin/expect -f
spawn /bin/bash

send -- "ssh $username@$ip-address\r" #establish a connection to an
other computer
expect password;
send -- "$password\r"
expect "$user@$machine;"
send -- "test -d /usr\r" #does the directory /usr exist?
expect "test -d /usr\r"
send -- "echo $?" #make the return value visible

#and here is the non working code
expect {
1 { send_user "Directory doesn't exist" }
0 { send_user "Directory exist }

}

expect eof

script
end------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------

The question remains: why doesn't work expect properly?

Regards

Pancho

Pancho.Sanchez.por.que@gmail.com wrote:
> send -- "echo $?" #make the return value visible

I think you meant:
send -- "echo \$?"

Yours was asking to reference the variable named '?' Or instead of double quotes,
you could use curlies as what you're sending is a literal:

send -- {echo $?}

--
I'm killing time while I wait for life to shower me with meaning and
happiness. -- Calvin

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On Jun 7, 12:00 pm, Pancho.Sanchez.por.que@gmail.com wrote:

I see. I'm not too sure about the problem, but I'd be
concerned about the setting of the shell variable $?
and whether Expect will see it as it is. I'm sure someone
can answer the question for you. But an alternative and
more reliable method could be using ls, e.g.
send "ls -d /usr\r"
expect {
/user\r { it_exists }
" No such " { it_is_not_there }
}

By the way, there are quite a lot of good Expect
automatic login scripts with telnet/ssh in this user
group. You can do a search to find them.

In article <1181181615.248613.319@p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>,

.
.
.
Expect does work properly. It *is* working properly, almost certainly.

You probably want

expect {assword: }
and
send "echo \$?\r"

rather than

expect password;
and
send -- "echo $?" #make the return value visible

and so on.

You'll want to read <URL: http:/wiki.tcl.tk/3173 >.

More, later.

On Jun 7, 4:19 am, David Gravereaux <davyg@pobox.com> wrote:

Actually in this case it doesn't matter as $? is not one of the forms
allowed for variable substitution. Thus
puts $?
and
puts \$?
will print the same. To get the contents of variable ? ${?} should be
used.

Mark

In article <1181183950.445931.63@n4g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
Why Tea <ytl@gmail.com> wrote:

It's OK to write "$?". As you write, it is indeed possible to
use several different approaches to search on a remote Unix
filesystem for a specific node. In particular, though, Mr.
Sanchez' technique *can* work, once it's cleaned up a bit:

spawn ssh $account@$host
expect "assword: "
send $password\r
send "test -d /usr\r"
expect {$ }
send "echo \"It is $?.\"\r"
expect {$ }
send exit\r
expect eof
puts "All done."

emits:

...
$account@$host:~$ test -d /usr
$account@$host:~$ echo "It is $?."
It is 0.
$account@$host:~$ exit
logout
Connection to $host closed.
All done.

Season to taste.

Hi Cameron,

your script works perfectly. Thank you.

TCL(Tool Command Language) Scripting

Expect expect beginner question