AUTOEXPECT(1)						      General Commands Manual						     AUTOEXPECT(1)

NAME

       autoexpect - generate an Expect script from watching a session

SYNOPSIS

       autoexpect [ args ] [ program args...  ]

INTRODUCTION

       autoexpect  watches  you interacting with another program and creates an Expect script that reproduces your interactions.  For straightline
       scripts, autoexpect saves substantial time over writing scripts by hand.  Even if you are an Expect expert, you will find it convenient	to
       use  autoexpect	to  automate the more mindless parts of interactions.  It is much easier to cut/paste hunks of autoexpect scripts together
       than to write them from scratch.  And if you are a beginner, you may be able to get away with learning nothing more about Expect  than  how
       to call autoexpect.

       The simplest way to use autoexpect is to call it from the command line with no arguments.  For example:

	    % autoexpect

       By default, autoexpect spawns a shell for you.  Given a program name and arguments, autoexpect spawns that program.  For example:

	    % autoexpect ftp ftp.cme.nist.gov

       Once  your  spawned program is running, interact normally.  When you have exited the shell (or program that you specified), autoexpect will
       create a new script for you.  By default, autoexpect writes the new script to "script.exp".  You can override this with the  -f	flag  fol-
       lowed by a new script name.

       The following example runs "ftp ftp.cme.nist.gov" and stores the resulting Expect script in the file "nist".

	    % autoexpect -f nist ftp ftp.cme.nist.gov

       It  is important to understand that autoexpect does not guarantee a working script because it necessarily has to guess about certain things
       - and occasionally it guesses wrong.  However, it is usually very easy to identify and fix these problems.  The typical problems are:

	      o   Timing.  A surprisingly large number of programs (rn, ksh, zsh, telnet, etc.) and devices (e.g., modems) ignore keystrokes  that
		  arrive  "too	quickly"  after prompts.  If you find your new script hanging up at one spot, try adding a short sleep just before
		  the previous send.

		  You can force this behavior throughout by overriding the variable "force_conservative"  near	the  beginning	of  the  generated
		  script.  This "conservative" mode makes autoexpect automatically pause briefly (one tenth of a second) before sending each char-
		  acter.  This pacifies every program I know of.

		  This conservative mode is useful if you just want to quickly reassure yourself that the problem is  a  timing  one  (or  if  you
		  really don't care about how fast the script runs).  This same mode can be forced before script generation by using the -c flag.

		  Fortunately,	these  timing  spots  are  rare.   For example, telnet ignores characters only after entering its escape sequence.
		  Modems only ignore characters immediately after connecting to them for the first time.  A few programs exhibit this behavior all
		  the time but typically have a switch to disable it.  For example, rn's -T flag disables this behavior.

		  The following example starts autoexpect in conservative mode.

		       autoexpect -c

		  The  -C flag defines a key to toggle conservative mode.  The following example starts autoexpect (in non-conservative mode) with
		  ^L as the toggle.  (Note that the ^L is entered literally - i.e., enter a real control-L).

		       autoexpect -C ^L

		  The following example starts autoexpect in conservative mode with ^L as the toggle.

		       autoexpect -c -C ^L

	      o   Echoing.  Many program echo characters.  For example, if you type "more" to a shell, what autoexpect actually sees is:

		       you typed 'm',
		       computer typed 'm',
		       you typed 'o',
		       computer typed 'o',
		       you typed 'r',
		       computer typed 'r',
		       ...

		  Without specific knowledge of the program, it is impossible to know if you are waiting to see each character echoed before  typ-
		  ing  the  next.   If autoexpect sees characters being echoed, it assumes that it can send them all as a group rather than inter-
		  leaving them the way they originally appeared.  This makes the script more pleasant to read.	However, it could  conceivably	be
		  incorrect if you really had to wait to see each character echoed.

	      o   Change.   Autoexpect	records  every	character  from the interaction in the script.	This is desirable because it gives you the
		  ability to make judgements about what is important and what can be replaced with a pattern match.

		  On the other hand, if you use commands whose output differs from run to run, the generated scripts are not going to be  correct.
		  For  example, the "date" command always produces different output.  So using the date command while running autoexpect is a sure
		  way to produce a script that will require editing in order for it to work.

		  The -p flag puts autoexpect into "prompt mode".  In this mode, autoexpect will only look for the the last line of program output
		  - which is usually the prompt.  This handles the date problem (see above) and most others.

		  The following example starts autoexpect in prompt mode.

		       autoexpect -p

		  The  -P  flag  defines a key to toggle prompt mode.  The following example starts autoexpect (in non-prompt mode) with ^P as the
		  toggle.  Note that the ^P is entered literally - i.e., enter a real control-P.

		       autoexpect -P ^P

		  The following example starts autoexpect in prompt mode with ^P as the toggle.

		       autoexpect -p -P ^P

OTHER FLAGS

       The -quiet flag disables informational messages produced by autoexpect.

       The -Q flag names a quote character which can be used to enter characters that autoexpect would otherwise consume because they are used	as
       toggles.

       The following example shows a number of flags with quote used to provide a way of entering the toggles literally.

	    autoexpect -P ^P -C ^L -Q ^Q

STYLE

       I don't know if there is a "style" for Expect programs but autoexpect should definitely not be held up as any model of style.  For example,
       autoexpect uses features of Expect that are intended specifically for computer-generated scripting.   So  don't	try  to  faithfully  write
       scripts that appear as if they were generated by autoexpect.  This is not useful.

       On  the	other hand, autoexpect scripts do show some worthwhile things.	For example, you can see how any string must be quoted in order to
       use it in a Tcl script simply by running the strings through autoexpect.

SEE ALSO

       "Exploring Expect: A Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs" by Don Libes, O'Reilly and Associates, January 1995.

AUTHOR

       Don Libes, National Institute of Standards and Technology

       expect and autoexpect are in the public domain.	NIST and I would appreciate credit if these programs or parts of them are used.

								   30 June 1995 						     AUTOEXPECT(1)