Thanks hfreyer. I don't think I described the problem very well. Basically my insertdiscs script calls the vimport binary in a loop which is always running in a terminal. vimport is an interactive program that prompts to insert magnetic optical disks in a jukebox one at a time (enter slot number or hit enter at prompts for next available jukebox slot). The screen output for vimport has information that I need to also capture to a file (egrep Imported\|INFO). So in order to still see the interactive text from vimport to load disks and also capture parts of the output to file for processing I can start the script with:

Code:

insertdiscs | tee >(egrep Imported\|INFO >> /tmp/importdisclog.txt)

Except now I have to hit enter an extra time to get back to the beginning of the loop running vimport. Piping to tee adds the need for an extra enter key press. So I was hoping to somehow automatically add one enter key press or for some other solution. Otherwise the script always looks like it has hung when in fact it is ready to insert the next disk (after hitting enter an extra time to see the "please insert disk" prompt again).
Piping from print "\n" or (sleep 1; print "\n") sends too many newlines, I was hoping for some way to just send one if possible. Unfortunately the system is an old Sun box running Sun 5.8 so no expect.