CHAT(8) 						      System Manager's Manual							   CHAT(8)

NAME

       chat - Automated conversational script with a modem

SYNOPSIS

       chat [ options ] script

DESCRIPTION

       The  chat  program defines a conversational exchange between the computer and the modem. Its primary purpose is to establish the connection
       between the Point-to-Point Protocol Daemon (pppd) and the remote's pppd process.

OPTIONS

       -f <chat file>
	      Read the chat script from the chat file. The use of this option is mutually exclusive with the chat script parameters. The user must
	      have  read  access to the file. Multiple lines are permitted in the file. Space or horizontal tab characters should be used to sepa-
	      rate the strings.

       -t <timeout>
	      Set the timeout for the expected string to be received. If the string is not received within the time limit then the reply string is
	      not  sent.  An alternate reply may be sent or the script will fail if there is no alternate reply string. A failed script will cause
	      the chat program to terminate with a non-zero error code.

       -r <report file>
	      Set the file for output of the report strings. If you use the keyword REPORT, the resulting strings are written  to  this  file.	If
	      this option is not used and you still use REPORT keywords, the stderr file is used for the report strings.

       -e     Start  with  the echo option turned on. Echoing may also be turned on or off at specific points in the chat script by using the ECHO
	      keyword. When echoing is enabled, all output from the modem is echoed to stderr.

       -E     Enables environment variable substituion within chat scripts using the standard $xxx syntax.

       -v     Request that the chat script be executed in a verbose mode. The chat program will then log the execution state of the chat script as
	      well  as	all  text received from the modem and the output strings sent to the modem.  The default is to log through the SYSLOG; the
	      logging method may be altered with the -S and -s flags.

       -V     Request that the chat script be executed in a stderr verbose mode. The chat program will then log all text received from	the  modem
	      and  the	output strings sent to the modem to the stderr device. This device is usually the local console at the station running the
	      chat or pppd program.

       -s     Use stderr.  All log messages from '-v' and all error messages will be sent to stderr.

       -S     Do not use the SYSLOG.  By default, error messages are sent to the SYSLOG.  The use of -S will prevent both log messages	from  '-v'
	      and error messages from being sent to the SYSLOG.

       -T <phone number>
	      Pass in an arbitary string, usually a phone number, that will be substituted for the T substitution metacharacter in a send string.

       -U <phone number 2>
	      Pass  in	a  second string, usually a phone number, that will be substituted for the U substitution metacharacter in a send string.
	      This is useful when dialing an ISDN terminal adapter that requires two numbers.

       script If the script is not specified in a file with the -f option then the script is included as parameters to the chat program.

CHAT SCRIPT

       The chat script defines the communications.

       A script consists of one or more "expect-send" pairs of strings, separated by spaces, with an  optional	"subexpect-subsend"  string  pair,
       separated by a dash as in the following example:

	      ogin:-BREAK-ogin: ppp ssword: hello2u2

       This  line indicates that the chat program should expect the string "ogin:". If it fails to receive a login prompt within the time interval
       allotted, it is to send a break sequence to the remote and then expect the string "ogin:". If the first "ogin:" is received then the  break
       sequence is not generated.

       Once  it  received  the	login  prompt the chat program will send the string ppp and then expect the prompt "ssword:". When it receives the
       prompt for the password, it will send the password hello2u2.

       A carriage return is normally sent following the reply string. It is not  expected  in  the  "expect"  string  unless  it  is  specifically
       requested by using the 
 character sequence.

       The  expect  sequence  should contain only what is needed to identify the string. Since it is normally stored on a disk file, it should not
       contain variable information. It is generally not acceptable to look for time strings, network identification strings,  or  other  variable
       pieces of data as an expect string.

       To  help correct for characters which may be corrupted during the initial sequence, look for the string "ogin:" rather than "login:". It is
       possible that the leading "l" character may be received in error and you may never find the string even though it was sent by  the  system.
       For this reason, scripts look for "ogin:" rather than "login:" and "ssword:" rather than "password:".

       A very simple script might look like this:

	      ogin: ppp ssword: hello2u2

       In other words, expect ....ogin:, send ppp, expect ...ssword:, send hello2u2.

       In  actual  practice, simple scripts are rare. At the vary least, you should include sub-expect sequences should the original string not be
       received. For example, consider the following script:

	      ogin:--ogin: ppp ssword: hello2u2

       This would be a better script than the simple one used earlier. This would look for the	same  login:  prompt,  however,  if  one  was  not
       received,  a  single  return sequence is sent and then it will look for login: again. Should line noise obscure the first login prompt then
       sending the empty line will usually generate a login prompt again.

COMMENTS

       Comments can be embedded in the chat script. A comment is a line which starts with the # (hash) character in column 1. Such  comment  lines
       are  just ignored by the chat program. If a '#' character is to be expected as the first character of the expect sequence, you should quote
       the expect string.  If you want to wait for a prompt that starts with a # (hash) character, you would have to write something like this:

	      # Now wait for the prompt and send logout string
	      '# ' logout

SENDING DATA FROM A FILE

       If the string to send starts with an at sign (@), the rest of the string is taken to be the name of a file to read to  get  the	string	to
       send.   If  the	last  character of the data read is a newline, it is removed.  The file can be a named pipe (or fifo) instead of a regular
       file.  This provides a way for chat to communicate with another program, for example, a program to prompt the user and receive  a  password
       typed in.

ABORT STRINGS

       Many  modems will report the status of the call as a string. These strings may be CONNECTED or NO CARRIER or BUSY. It is often desirable to
       terminate the script should the modem fail to connect to the remote. The difficulty is that a script would not  know  exactly  which  modem
       string it may receive. On one attempt, it may receive BUSY while the next time it may receive NO CARRIER.

       These "abort" strings may be specified in the script using the ABORT sequence. It is written in the script as in the following example:

	      ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' '' ATZ OK ATDT5551212 CONNECT

       This  sequence  will expect nothing; and then send the string ATZ. The expected response to this is the string OK. When it receives OK, the
       string ATDT5551212 to dial the telephone. The expected string is CONNECT. If the string CONNECT is received the remainder of the script	is
       executed.  However,  should  the  modem	find a busy telephone, it will send the string BUSY. This will cause the string to match the abort
       character sequence. The script will then fail because it found a match to the abort string. If it received the string NO CARRIER,  it  will
       abort for the same reason. Either string may be received. Either string will terminate the chat script.

CLR_ABORT STRINGS
       This  sequence  allows for clearing previously set ABORT strings.  ABORT strings are kept in an array of a pre-determined size (at compila-
       tion time); CLR_ABORT will reclaim the space for cleared entries so that new strings can use that space.

SAY STRINGS

       The SAY directive allows the script to send strings to the user at the terminal via standard error.  If chat is being run by pppd, and pppd
       is  running  as a daemon (detached from its controlling terminal), standard error will normally be redirected to the file /etc/ppp/connect-
       errors.

       SAY strings must be enclosed in single or double quotes. If carriage return and line feed are needed in the string to be output,  you  must
       explicitely add them to your string.

       The  SAY strings could be used to give progress messages in sections of the script where you want to have 'ECHO OFF' but still let the user
       know what is happening.	An example is:

	      ABORT BUSY
	      ECHO OFF
	      SAY "Dialling your ISP...
"
	      '' ATDT5551212
	      TIMEOUT 120
	      SAY "Waiting up to 2 minutes for connection ... "
	      CONNECT ''
	      SAY "Connected, now logging in ...0
	      ogin: account
	      ssword: pass
	      $ SAY "Logged in OK ...0 etc ...

       This sequence will only present the SAY strings to the user and all the details of the script will remain hidden. For example, if the above
       script works, the user will see:

	      Dialling your ISP...
	      Waiting up to 2 minutes for connection ... Connected, now logging in ...
	      Logged in OK ...

REPORT STRINGS

       A  report  string is similar to the ABORT string. The difference is that the strings, and all characters to the next control character such
       as a carriage return, are written to the report file.

       The report strings may be used to isolate the transmission rate of the modem's connect string and return the value to the  chat	user.  The
       analysis  of  the report string logic occurs in conjunction with the other string processing such as looking for the expect string. The use
       of the same string for a report and abort sequence is probably not very useful, however, it is possible.

       The report strings to no change the completion code of the program.

       These "report" strings may be specified in the script using the REPORT sequence. It is written in the script as in the following example:

	      REPORT CONNECT ABORT BUSY '' ATDT5551212 CONNECT '' ogin: account

       This sequence will expect nothing; and then send the string ATDT5551212 to dial the telephone. The  expected  string  is  CONNECT.  If  the
       string  CONNECT is received the remainder of the script is executed. In addition the program will write to the expect-file the string "CON-
       NECT" plus any characters which follow it such as the connection rate.

CLR_REPORT STRINGS
       This sequence allows for clearing previously set REPORT strings.  REPORT strings are kept in an array of a pre-determined size (at compila-
       tion time); CLR_REPORT will reclaim the space for cleared entries so that new strings can use that space.

ECHO

       The echo options controls whether the output from the modem is echoed to stderr. This option may be set with the -e option, but it can also
       be controlled by the ECHO keyword. The "expect-send" pair ECHO ON enables echoing, and ECHO OFF disables it.  With  this  keyword  you  can
       select which parts of the conversation should be visible. For instance, with the following script:

	      ABORT   'BUSY'
	      ABORT   'NO CARRIER'
	      OK
  ATD1234567
	      
    c
	      ECHO    ON
	      CONNECT c
	      ogin:   account

       all  output resulting from modem configuration and dialing is not visible, but starting with the CONNECT (or BUSY) message, everything will
       be echoed.

HANGUP

       The HANGUP options control whether a modem hangup should be considered as an error or not.  This option is useful in scripts  for  dialling
       systems which will hang up and call your system back.  The HANGUP options can be ON or OFF.
       When  HANGUP is set OFF and the modem hangs up (e.g., after the first stage of logging in to a callback system), chat will continue running
       the script (e.g., waiting for the incoming call and second stage login prompt). As soon as the incoming call is connected, you  should  use
       the HANGUP ON directive to reinstall normal hang up signal behavior.  Here is an (simple) example script:

	      ABORT   'BUSY'
	      OK
  ATD1234567
	      
    c
	      CONNECT c
	      'Callback login:' call_back_ID
	      HANGUP OFF
	      ABORT "Bad Login"
	      'Callback Password:' Call_back_password
	      TIMEOUT 120
	      CONNECT c
	      HANGUP ON
	      ABORT "NO CARRIER"
	      ogin:--BREAK--ogin: real_account
	      etc ...

TIMEOUT

       The initial timeout value is 45 seconds. This may be changed using the -t parameter.

       To change the timeout value for the next expect string, the following example may be used:

	      ATZ OK ATDT5551212 CONNECT TIMEOUT 10 ogin:--ogin: TIMEOUT 5 assword: hello2u2

       This  will  change  the timeout to 10 seconds when it expects the login: prompt. The timeout is then changed to 5 seconds when it looks for
       the password prompt.

       The timeout, once changed, remains in effect until it is changed again.

SENDING EOT

       The special reply string of EOT indicates that the chat program should send an EOT character to the remote. This is  normally  the  End-of-
       file character sequence. A return character is not sent following the EOT.  The EOT sequence may be embedded into the send string using the
       sequence ^D.

GENERATING BREAK

       The special reply string of BREAK will cause a break condition to be sent. The break is a special signal on  the  transmitter.  The  normal
       processing  on  the  receiver  is to change the transmission rate.  It may be used to cycle through the available transmission rates on the
       remote until you are able to receive a valid login prompt.  The break sequence may be embedded into the send string using the K sequence.

ESCAPE SEQUENCES

       The expect and reply strings may contain escape sequences. All of the sequences are legal in the  reply	string.  Many  are  legal  in  the
       expect.	Those which are not valid in the expect sequence are so indicated.

       ''     Expects  or sends a null string. If you send a null string then it will still send the return character. This sequence may either be
	      a pair of apostrophe or quote characters.

            represents a backspace character.

       c     Suppresses the newline at the end of the reply string. This is the only method to send a string without a trailing return character.
	      It  must	be  at	the end of the send string. For example, the sequence helloc will simply send the characters h, e, l, l, o.  (not
	      valid in expect.)

       d     Delay for one second. The program uses sleep(1) which will delay to a maximum of one second.  (not valid in expect.)

       K     Insert a BREAK (not valid in expect.)

       
     Send a newline or linefeed character.

       N     Send a null character. The same sequence may be represented by .  (not valid in expect.)

       p     Pause for a fraction of a second. The delay is 1/10th of a second.  (not valid in expect.)

       q     Suppress writing the string to the SYSLOG file. The string ?????? is written to the log in its place.  (not valid in expect.)

       
     Send or expect a carriage return.

       s     Represents a space character in the string. This may be used when it is not desirable to quote the strings  which  contains  spaces.
	      The sequence 'HI TIM' and HIsTIM are the same.

       	     Send or expect a tab character.

       T     Send the phone number string as specified with the -T option (not valid in expect.)

       U     Send the phone number 2 string as specified with the -U option (not valid in expect.)

       \     Send or expect a backslash character.

       ddd   Collapse the octal digits (ddd) into a single ASCII character and send that character.  (some characters are not valid in expect.)

       ^C     Substitute  the  sequence  with  the control character represented by C.	For example, the character DC1 (17) is shown as ^Q.  (some
	      characters are not valid in expect.)

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       Environment variables are available within chat scripts, if  the -E option was specified in the command line. The metacharacter $  is  used
       to introduce the name of the environment variable to substitute. If the substition fails, because the requested environment variable is not
       set, nothing is replaced for the variable.

TERMINATION CODES

       The chat program will terminate with the following completion codes.

       0      The normal termination of the program. This indicates that the script was executed without error to the normal conclusion.

       1      One or more of the parameters are invalid or an expect string was too large for the internal buffers. This indicates that  the  pro-
	      gram as not properly executed.

       2      An  error occurred during the execution of the program. This may be due to a read or write operation failing for some reason or chat
	      receiving a signal such as SIGINT.

       3      A timeout event occurred when there was an expect string without having a "-subsend" string. This may mean that you did not  program
	      the script correctly for the condition or that some unexpected event has occurred and the expected string could not be found.

       4      The first string marked as an ABORT condition occurred.

       5      The second string marked as an ABORT condition occurred.

       6      The third string marked as an ABORT condition occurred.

       7      The fourth string marked as an ABORT condition occurred.

       ...    The other termination codes are also strings marked as an ABORT condition.

       Using  the  termination	code, it is possible to determine which event terminated the script. It is possible to decide if the string "BUSY"
       was received from the modem as opposed to "NO DIAL TONE". While the first event may be retried, the second will probably have little chance
       of succeeding during a retry.

SEE ALSO

       Additional  information	about  chat scripts may be found with UUCP documentation. The chat script was taken from the ideas proposed by the
       scripts used by the uucico program.

       uucico(1), uucp(1)

COPYRIGHT

       The chat program is in public domain. This is not the GNU public license. If it breaks then you get to keep both pieces.

Chat Version 1.22						    22 May 1999 							   CHAT(8)