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Expect interaction with Perl
Hello,
I'm not sure if this is a Perl question or an Expect question. I
posted it to a Perl usenet group, but the only response I got so far
was to suggest using the Expect module in Perl. I'd rather not do
that, as the Expect script is already written and I'd prefer to use it
rather than rewrite it in Perl Expect.
I have written an Expect script that someone else is executing in
their Perl script. I would like my Expect script to return a string as
a value to this Perl script, not a boolean (i.e. integer).
For example, say my Expect script does something like this:
if (<this>) {
return "SUCCESS";
} else {
return "FAILURE";
}
The Perl script needs to have the value returned as either a "SUCCESS"
or "FAILURE".
I created a short Perl script that executes the Expect script by doing
the following:
my $rtnval = `rem.exp`;
Of course, that's not going to return the value I am looking for; it's
only going to print the output to stdout. And if I try:
my $rtnval = system("rem.exp");
that's only going to tell me if the system call passed or failed (i.e.
an integer), regardless of whether the Expect script deemed a success
or fail.
How can I call an Expect script from a Perl script and return a string
value? Is there some trick to getting an interaction between Perl and
Expect? I suppose I could do some kludge, like read the output into a
file and search the file for the response. But I'd rather avoid that
if possible.
Thanks in advance to all that respond.
Eric
In article <1171495592.114915.221@v45g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>,
Eric <ecarl @vmware.com> wrote: >Hello, >I'm not sure if this is a Perl question or an Expect question. I
>posted it to a Perl usenet group, but the only response I got so far
>was to suggest using the Expect module in Perl. I'd rather not do
>that, as the Expect script is already written and I'd prefer to use it
>rather than rewrite it in Perl Expect.
>I have written an Expect script that someone else is executing in
>their Perl script. I would like my Expect script to return a string as
>a value to this Perl script, not a boolean (i.e. integer).
>For example, say my Expect script does something like this:
>if (<this>) {
> return "SUCCESS";
>} else {
> return "FAILURE";
>}
>The Perl script needs to have the value returned as either a "SUCCESS"
>or "FAILURE".
>I created a short Perl script that executes the Expect script by doing
>the following:
>my $rtnval = `rem.exp`;
>Of course, that's not going to return the value I am looking for; it's
>only going to print the output to stdout. And if I try:
>my $rtnval = system("rem.exp");
>that's only going to tell me if the system call passed or failed (i.e.
>an integer), regardless of whether the Expect script deemed a success
>or fail.
>How can I call an Expect script from a Perl script and return a string
>value? Is there some trick to getting an interaction between Perl and
>Expect? I suppose I could do some kludge, like read the output into a
>file and search the file for the response. But I'd rather avoid that
>if possible.
.
.
It's a Perl question, and frankly your Perl advisors seem
to have led you astray--it's an *easy* Perl question.
I'd love to chat at length, by the way, about the uses of
scripting languages at VMWare.
Briefly, you can't have it--or, more precisely, you're
making things way too hard for yourself. Processes under
Unix and Windows can emit strings to stdout, and they can
return small integers as exit values, but they don't pass
strings as exit values. They just don't. Unless you're
in very unusual circumstances, pursuit of that is fruit-
less.
Focus on
my $rtnval = `rem.exp`;
and have rem.exp print its result to stdout. If I under-
stand you correctly, that's going to give you the most
satisfaction.
Incidentally, Expect.pm is perfectly usable for cases
such as yours.
At 2007-02-14 06:26PM, "Eric" wrote:
[...]
> For example, say my Expect script does something like this: > if (<this>) {
> return "SUCCESS";
> } else {
> return "FAILURE";
> }
[...]
> I created a short Perl script that executes the Expect script by doing
> the following:
> my $rtnval = `rem.exp`;
captures the exit status. In your Expect script you need:
if (<this>) {
puts "SUCCESS";
} else {
puts "FAILURE";
}
--
Glenn Jackman
"You can only be young once. But you can always be immature." -- Dave Barry
In article <0imca4-ksh.@lairds.us>, I blurted out:
> .
> .
> .
>It's a Perl question, and frankly your Perl advisors seem
>to have led you astray--it's an *easy* Perl question.
.
.
.
>Briefly, you can't have it--or, more precisely, you're >making things way too hard for yourself. Processes under >Unix and Windows can emit strings to stdout, and they can >return small integers as exit values, but they don't pass >strings as exit values. They just don't. Unless you're >in very unusual circumstances, pursuit of that is fruit- >less. >Focus on
> my $rtnval = `rem.exp`;
>and have rem.exp print its result to stdout. If I under-
.
.
I've traded notes with Eric privately, and he seems to be on
his way to satisfaction.
I rushed when I posted earlier. I should amend a couple of
points, so as not to lead others astray:
A. It might be misleading to categorize this
as a Perl matter rather than an OS-level
one. In fact, wrappers in Perl, Python,
C, Erlang, Rexx, ... would all naturally
handle the IPC the same way: have the
interior process write to stdout, and
receive that "batched" result.
B. If a person's working with an existing
rem.exp, let's say, and wants to retain
its behavior unchanged, it's perfectly
fine to introduce a flag so that, in
our example, the Perl wrapper invokes
my $rtnval = `rem.exp -q`;
and so on.
On Feb 15, 6:22 am, Glenn Jackman <gle@ncf.ca> wrote:
> At 2007-02-14 06:26PM, "Eric" wrote: > [...] > > For example, say my Expect script does something like this:
> > if (<this>) {
> > return "SUCCESS";
> > } else {
> > return "FAILURE";
> > }
> [...]
> > I created a short Perl script that executes the Expect script by doing
> > the following:
> > my $rtnval = `rem.exp`;
> Perl's backticks capture the stdout of the called process, and $?
> captures the exit status. In your Expect script you need:
> if (<this>) {
> puts "SUCCESS";
> } else {
> puts "FAILURE";
> }
> --
> Glenn Jackman
> "You can only be young once. But you can always be immature." -- Dave Barry
send_user (although I realize there are differences between the two).
Regardless of which one is used, it sounds as if the Perl script will
need to read this value from stdout; is that what you are implying?
Eric
Eric wrote: > On Feb 15, 6:22 am, Glenn Jackman <gle @ncf.ca> wrote: >> At 2007-02-14 06:26PM, "Eric" wrote: >> [...] >>> For example, say my Expect script does something like this:
>>> if (<this>) {
>>> return "SUCCESS";
>>> } else {
>>> return "FAILURE";
>>> }
>> [...]
>>> I created a short Perl script that executes the Expect script by doing
>>> the following:
>>> my $rtnval = `rem.exp`;
>> Perl's backticks capture the stdout of the called process, and $?
>> captures the exit status. In your Expect script you need:
>> if (<this>) {
>> puts "SUCCESS";
>> } else {
>> puts "FAILURE";
>> }
>> --
>> Glenn Jackman
>> "You can only be young once. But you can always be immature." -- Dave Barry
> Thanks for your message, Glenn. puts will print to stdout, but so will
> send_user (although I realize there are differences between the two).
> Regardless of which one is used, it sounds as if the Perl script will
> need to read this value from stdout; is that what you are implying?
> Eric
stdout, or else write/read them from a file. return values for
*processes* can only be a number (and a relatively small one at that).
Bruce
On Feb 15, 8:42 am, Bruce Hartweg <doNOT@nowhere.com> wrote:
> Eric wrote: > > On Feb 15, 6:22 am, Glenn Jackman <gle @ncf.ca> wrote: > >> At 2007-02-14 06:26PM, "Eric" wrote: > >> [...] > >>> For example, say my Expect script does something like this:
> >>> if (<this>) {
> >>> return "SUCCESS";
> >>> } else {
> >>> return "FAILURE";
> >>> }
> >> [...]
> >>> I created a short Perl script that executes the Expect script by doing
> >>> the following:
> >>> my $rtnval = `rem.exp`;
> >> Perl's backticks capture the stdout of the called process, and $?
> >> captures the exit status. In your Expect script you need:
> >> if (<this>) {
> >> puts "SUCCESS";
> >> } else {
> >> puts "FAILURE";
> >> }
> >> --
> >> Glenn Jackman
> >> "You can only be young once. But you can always be immature." -- Dave Barry
> > Thanks for your message, Glenn. puts will print to stdout, but so will
> > send_user (although I realize there are differences between the two).
> > Regardless of which one is used, it sounds as if the Perl script will
> > need to read this value from stdout; is that what you are implying?
> > Eric
> Yep, only way to get strings from a subprocess is to read them from
> stdout, or else write/read them from a file. return values for
> *processes* can only be a number (and a relatively small one at that).
> Bruce- Hide quoted text -
>
by using bacticks to capture the response of the Expect program and
then parsing it using Perl.
This was a much easier problem than I was making it. I guess I got
caught up in the mindset of Perl-Expect interaction.
Eric
In article <660Bh.1$%@dfw-service2.ext.ray.com>,
Bruce Hartweg <doNOT@nowhere.com> wrote:
>Eric wrote: >> On Feb 15, 6:22 am, Glenn Jackman <gle @ncf.ca> wrote: >>> At 2007-02-14 06:26PM, "Eric" wrote: >>> [...] >>>> I created a short Perl script that executes the Expect script by doing >>>> the following: >>>> my $rtnval = `rem.exp`; >>> Perl's backticks capture the stdout of the called process, and $? >>> captures the exit status. In your Expect script you need:
.
.
>> Thanks for your message, Glenn. puts will print to stdout, but so will >> send_user (although I realize there are differences between the two). >> Regardless of which one is used, it sounds as if the Perl script will >> need to read this value from stdout; is that what you are implying? >> Eric
>Yep, only way to get strings from a subprocess is to read them from
>stdout, or else write/read them from a file. return values for
>*processes* can only be a number (and a relatively small one at that).
.
.
A. Eric, please understand that backticks automate
the reading. All the Perl side needs is the
my $rtnval = `rem.exp`
you appear already to have (maybe with a bit of
chop()ping and such, depending on how you choose
to handle newlines).
B. As Bruce knows, there are LOTS of ways to get
strings between processes <URL: http://wiki.tcl.tk/1228 >.
Given the architecture you've specified, though (Perl
wraps Expect as a subprocess, ...), indeed the "only
way to get strings ..." is as we've described.
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