I have a program that i have to run by cron. The program needs user input. So i have to automate that in a littke script.

start of script program.sh:

result=program.log; export result
echo Program starting : `date` >> $result
/usr/local/program >> $result
echo Program running : `date` >> $result


The program normally asks for a string (a pass phrase).
How can i do this ?

I know i have to use something like :

/usr/local/program >> $result 2>&1 <<eof
blablablabla
eof

but i don't get it to work

Thanks in advance

Try something like...

...
/usr/local/program <<EOF >> $result 2>&1
blah
...
blah
blah
EOF
...

Note the contents of your blahblahblah file
would be placed directly "inline" in your
script being run by cron.

The code did not translate properly when
posted

Should be...

OK... I guess "quoting" doesn't work either.

Let's try...

/usr/local/program < < EOF > > $result 2>&1

...I tried an extra space between the "<"'s
and ">"'s

Note:
Try using the HTML equivelent, like:
&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;/sample_tag&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;

ampersand, lt, then semicolon for less than, and
ampersand, gt, then semicolon for greater than.

I tried a lot of things.

When i start quoting i always get messages of command not found. I treid normal single quote ', double quote " and single right quote ` and single left quote ´. Which one should i be using ? Do i have to quote the whole line ? I tried the whole line and parts of the line.

I tried to put the blahblah on the same line .
When i use :

program <> $result 2>&1 << blahblah
the output is coming to my screen

When using spaces between the < < then i get syntax errors near the unexpected token <

Most of the times it keeps waiting for the input. When i enter the string (stays invisible to me) the program starts without problem.

Check out expect: http://expect.nist.gov
You can supply interactive data in a script...

I'm not sure that i really understand what you're talking about.
i tried

program &lt< eof &gt> $result 2>&1 << blahblah

but i'm getting that the string is not the correct phrase.

I'm assuming that...

program << eof >> $result 2>&1

...is inside a shell script.
In this script, you would simply enter the
actual responses thar "program" reads...

program << eof >> $result 2>&1
answer1
answer2
...
answer5
eof

The "<< eof" creates a "here document" which
basically says, redirect the standard input
to "program" to everything between the "eof"'s
The ">> $result says append the standard
output of "program" to whatever file $result
points to.

Hello, thanks for your time, but still no solution

when i try

program << eof >> $result 2>&1
answer1
eof

the program just sits waiting. When i type the answer1-string myself, everything goes well.

I installed expect (and tcl --> both latest versions)
and tried the following script :

#!/usr/local/bin/expect
send_user "start expect\r"
spawn PROGRAM
expect "pass phrase:"
send "answer1\r"
send_user "stop expect\r"

This doesn't work either --> the program gets started, but finishes after displaying the question to enter the pass phrase.
The start en stop expect doesn't appear on screen also.

Has the fact that when in normal mode (outside a script) the pass phrase is entered it doesn't appear on the screen (password-like) ?

Thanks in advance

Erwin

Expect is very literal in what it expects...
A single space can ruin an entire script.

You might get lucky using wildcards, like so:

expect "*pass phrase:*"

Just be careful not to use too many, in case you match another line somewhere...

Also, make sure you are getting the case correct;
"Pass" does not equal "pass"

May I ask what "program" actually is?
It seems from your post that it is some
sort of program that requires a user
authentication (or password). Many programs
like this woun't let you redirect the
standard input by default but many also
provide other options to allow this sort
of redirection. In general, this is done
for security reasons (like the passwd program
itself).