Solaris

Hi,
I use an expect script to scp a file from server1. It use to work fine until i tried them on some specific sparc servers where it failed. Upon some analysis i found that the output of scp was different, causing expect to fail.
Generally when we do scp a file from server1, we are prompted for password, however, in this case the output was "user@server1's password". I am puzzled as to why scp on identical os's have two different outputs.

Have you considered using keys instead of hardcoded text passwords? They avoid this problem: ssh/scp/sftp become automatic and noninteractive, not needing to be nudged with third-party tools like expect.

They're much, much more secure than keeping a plaintext password around anyway -- that's why you had to use expect at all. ssh, and any other sane login system like su and sudo, are designed to prevent you from automating an interactive password. That you had to use expect at all is a subtle hint writ in mile-high flashing neon letters that you're really not supposed to.

Yes I know that passwordless auth can bypass this issue and in the end I will take that route (as a matter of fact, one scp command is the script is to exchange the .pub files), but still i am curious as to why scp is behaving differently.