Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi ,

I am not able figure out how to use expect tool to send input to this prompt of format

Code:

Searching for disks...done
selecting c0t3d0
[disk formatted]


FORMAT MENU:
        disk       - select a disk
        type       - select (define) a disk type
        partition  - select (define) a partition table
        current    - describe the current disk
        format     - format and analyze the disk
        repair     - repair a defective sector
        label      - write label to the disk
        analyze    - surface analysis
        defect     - defect list management
        backup     - search for backup labels
        verify     - read and display labels
        inquiry    - show vendor, product and revision
        volname    - set 8-character volume name
        !<cmd>     - execute <cmd>, then return
        quit
format>

my try

Code:

spawn "format -d c0t3d0"
expect "*format>*"  # I feel something is wrong over here
send "partition/r"

Please help

Is this running over any medium that might add delay, that a line with no linefeed might hang up? Try also expecting the '[disk formatted]' line, as early input will not be lost.

ok , i was able to fix that. btw. can you please let me know how to process pattern that is reptitive . for example

I am setting Free Hog paritition and i have to enter the size of each partition and it would be set to zero. should i create 7 expect function lines and each time send value 0 to it or is there any other way in expect tool ?

What good is a partition of size zero?

Expect runs in tcl, as I recall, so there may be looping constructs in tcl you can include. The man page does not show and flow of control commands: Man Page for expect (all Section 0) - The UNIX and Linux Forums You could generate the expect script using a shell loop. You can generate it on the fly as a named pipe or with commands from stdin in interactive mode:

The -f flag prefaces a file from which to read commands from. The flag
itself is optional as it is only useful when using the #! notation (see
above), so that other arguments may be supplied on the command line.
(When using Expectk, this option is specified as -file.)

By default, the command file is read into memory and executed in its
entirety. It is occasionally desirable to read files one line at a
time. For example, stdin is read this way. In order to force arbi-
trary files to be handled this way, use the -b flag. (When using
Expectk, this option is specified as -buffer.)Notethatstdio-buffering-
maystilltakeplacehoweverthisshouldn'tcauseproblemswhenreadingfromafi-
foorstdin.

If the string "-" is supplied as a filename, standard input is read
instead. (Use "./-" to read from a file actually named "-".)

The -i flag causes Expect to interactively prompt for commands instead
of reading them from a file. Prompting is terminated via the exit com-
mand or upon EOF. See interpreter (below) for more information. -i is
assumed if neither a command file nor -c is used. (When using Expectk,
this option is specified as -interactive.)

-- may be used to delimit the end of the options. This is useful if
you want to pass an option-like argument to your script without it
being interpreted by Expect. This can usefully be placed in the #!
line to prevent any flag-like interpretation by Expect. For example,
the following will leave the original arguments (including the script
name) in the variable argv.

#!/usr/local/bin/expect --

Note that the usual getopt(3) and execve(2) conventions must be
observed when adding arguments to the #! line.