UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

I am new at developing EXPECT scripts. I'm trying to create a script that will automatically connect to a UNIX server via FTP and download a log file from the server within a specified server directory on the remote machine. I'm having problems with the EXPECT script "hanging" at the password prompt. Can anyone help me to try and get this resolved?

Code:

set tgtHostLong [lindex $argv 1]
set ftpUser [lindex $argv 2]
set password [lindex $argv 3]
set timeout -1
spawn ftp $tgtHostLong
match_max 100000
expect -exact "User ($tgtHostLongnone)):"
send -- "$ftpUser\r"
expect -exact "Password: "
send -- "$password\r"
expect -exact "ftp> "

Actual Result:

spawn ftp xxxxxxxx.xxxx.xxx.com
User (xxxxxxxx.xxxx.xxx.comnone)): m25047
Password:

What happens if you change

Code:

expect -exact "Password: "
to
expect -re "Password: "

exp_internal 1 is your friend.

Include 'exp_internal 1' in your script and you should quickly be able to determine where your pattern matching fails.

Can you not use a .netrc file and eliminate the need for the expect program.
See: man netrc

That looks a little complicated for just a login and file retrieval script.
Couple pointers to get you going:
You don't need to set variables for items that you pass on the command line.
This works just as well:

Code:

 spawn [ lindex $argv 1 ]

The "usual" (may vary depending on the ftp server) login prompt for an ftp server looks something like this (say hostname is ftpserver and user is user1)

Code:

 Name (ftpserver:user1):

Now, you set hostname as $tgtHostLong, but your expect prompt is waiting for $tgtHostLongnone, plus you have one parenthesis too many.

Code:

set tgtHostLong [lindex $argv 1]
expect -exact "User ($tgtHostLongnone)):"

..so I'm guessing that because the answer doesn't match what expect is expecting here, given the timeout set, the script just goes to the next line even though it didn't match the exact answer.

I would remove the -exact flags and the timeout setting...

Start autoexpect, and then manually do what you want to do.
This will create a script automatically that you can tune and trim to your hearts desire. AUtoexpect comes with the expect package.