UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I have a program that i have to run by cron. The program needs user input. So i have to automate that in a littke script.

start of script program.sh:

result=program.log; export result
echo Program starting : `date` >> $result
/usr/local/program >> $result
echo Program running : `date` >> $result


The program normally asks for a string (a pass phrase).
How can i do this ?

I know i have to use something like :

/usr/local/program >> $result 2>&1 <<eof
blablablabla
eof

but i don't get it to work

Thanks in advance

Try something like...

...
/usr/local/program <<EOF >> $result 2>&1
blah
...
blah
blah
EOF
...

Note the contents of your blahblahblah file
would be placed directly "inline" in your
script being run by cron.

The code did not translate properly when
posted

Should be...

OK... I guess "quoting" doesn't work either.

Let's try...

/usr/local/program < < EOF > > $result 2>&1

...I tried an extra space between the "<"'s
and ">"'s

Note:
Try using the HTML equivelent, like:
&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;/sample_tag&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;

ampersand, lt, then semicolon for less than, and
ampersand, gt, then semicolon for greater than.

I tried a lot of things.

When i start quoting i always get messages of command not found. I treid normal single quote ', double quote " and single right quote ` and single left quote ´. Which one should i be using ? Do i have to quote the whole line ? I tried the whole line and parts of the line.

I tried to put the blahblah on the same line .
When i use :

program <> $result 2>&1 << blahblah
the output is coming to my screen

When using spaces between the < < then i get syntax errors near the unexpected token <

Most of the times it keeps waiting for the input. When i enter the string (stays invisible to me) the program starts without problem.

Check out expect: http://expect.nist.gov
You can supply interactive data in a script...