Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi,
I'm not sure how to properly end an Expect script that will eventually be called by a cronjob. Right now, I'm running it from the command line. The gist of it:

spawn $env(SHELL)

### SSH to remote server

### perform operation

### logout

### now at parent shell, do a SCP

### SCP done, now need to exit
expect eof


However, it never really exits when I'm testing this. I see the prompt back after the scp, but it is still expecting the next input (i.e. any command I type just sits there until I do a ctrl-c). If I do "interact", then I'm able to regain shell back.

Eventually this will be called by a cronjob and I don't want multiple dead shells sitting out there. Will this be the case?

Appreciate any pointers.

what is your full code?

Perhaps I wasn't clear in my original post. The script is working, but I'm not sure how to properly exit from Expect when invoking manually from a term vs calling it from a cron job.

Here's a little bit more of the code.

Code:

#!/usr/bin/expect -f

set timeout -1

##
## START OF SCRIPT
##
spawn $env(SHELL)

### SSH to remote server
send -- "ssh root@myserver\r"
... (code removed) ...

### perform operation
... (code removed) ...

### logout
send -- "logout\r"
... (code removed) ...

### now at parent shell, do a SCP
send -- "scp root@myserver:/path/to/file/somefile.tar .\r"
expect -exact "root@myserver's password"
send -- "mypassword\r"
expect -regexp {..*}

### SCP done, now need to exit
expect eof

It is the last line I'm not sure what I need to send. I've tried the following in one form or another based on other threads. If I'm running manually, it appears, I just need to supply interact. If I'm calling this from a cron job eventually, I just want to make sure Expect exits properly and I do not have zombie shells. Thanks.

Code:

#send -- "^C\r"
#expect eof
#interact
#catch wait result
#exit 0

you're spawning an instance of a shell.. you need to exit the shell or spawn scp instead of shell.

How do I end the shell? Send the ^D char? I recall trying this but when testing from the term, I still do not get control back after the script ends.

Can you provide an example of how to properly exit assuming I spawn? Thanks.

Not 100% clear on the expect syntax for it, but if you can close the file handle you write shell commands into, the shell will get EOF and quit.

As trey85stang said, you need to send exit to the shell or directly spawn ssh (I would choose the second one ...).