> On May 10, 6:03 am, zhjac@gmail.com wrote:

> > Hi all,

> > In my expect script, I tried to use:

> > expect -re {.*} ...

> > to get all the output of a command, but it didn't.

> > The following is the command I send:

> > insert into table1 values (1,'abcde');commit;

> > and the output is like:
> > SQL> insert into table1 values (1, 'abcde');
> > Transaction Done
> > SQL>

> > In my script, there's a place expecting the prompt "SQL>". But because
> > it appears in the output more than once, I have to use "expect -re
> > {.*}" to get the rest of the output. The problem is that it doesn't
> > seem to work.

> > My script is like:

> > expect {
> >     -re $lTargetPrompt {
> >         append lOutput $expect_out(buffer)
> >         expect -re {.*} {append lOutput $expect_out(buffer)}
> >     }
> >     ...

> > }

> > Does anyone have any ideas?

> > Thanks in advance!

> > Jack

> yes, the regexp {.*} matches 0 or more so it wont even look at the
> expect buffer it just matches on ""
> Also since you don't know what the expect buffer has at one time if
> you dont provide anything to anchor
> your regexp you can get different results every time you run your
> program especially if you provide a
> catch all that absorbs the expect_out(buffer) every time through the
> loop. For instance ( see code below)
> because of system load the initial expect buffer is "xxxxxSQL>" then
> it will match and everything is fine and it never
> reaches the catch all. Under heavy load the buffer may only be
> "xxxxxSQ" your catch all will match and
> on the next go round the "QL>" will not match either resulting in the
> catch all running
> expect {
>          -re {(.*)SQL>} {
>                        append output $expect_out(1,string)\n"
>                        puts "FOUND MATCH $output"
>                       }
>          -re {.+} {
>                        append output $expect_out(buffer);
>                        puts "CATCHALL"

> since your expression SQL> is never seen then it never matches.  A
> better way is to do this:
> expect {
>       -re {(.*)SQL>$} {  # prompt are usually on line by itself
>                    append output $expect_out(1,string) incr count
>                    if  {  $count < $expectedNumPrompts } {
>                         exp_continue;
>                    }
>             }
>       -re {^.*$} { # match lines
>                  lappend output $expect_out(buffer)
>                 }
>       eof {
>               ;
>            }
>      timeout {
>               exp_continue ;
>             }
>  }

> Carl

}

}