UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello Everybody,
Please help.

I was trying to automate the use of a third-party given shell script. The script is written to be used at run-time to collect a few variables to be provided by the user through key board, in the fashion as below:

./runcommand

please provide a file name to dump the output:
then user type in the file name
please provide the user name:
then user type in the user name
please provide password
then user type in the password
please provide role:
then the uese type in the answer to the role

I want to run this command automatically without the user interactive input as I know in advance my answers to those questions.
Ideally like:
./runcommand file_name user_name user_password user_role
or something similar that the command does not wait for the user's interaction.
How can I do that?

Thanks in advance

--Dingrong

If you don't want to modify the script itself you could use expect. Here is a link:
Expect - Expect - Home Page

Also if you do a search on expect in these forums you should find examples.

I found no better way but to generate on-fly a file containing answers to those questions and direct it to the runcommand.

runcommand < file_containing_answers

Thanks though.

--Dingrong

It sucks to have to use a separate file for that. If you are writing a script, keeping the information in the same script as a here document is probably preferrable.

Code:

runcommand <<answers_r_us
/path/to/dump/output
username
p455w0rd
Sarah Bernhard role
answers_r_us

Obviously, replace the placeholders with the actual input you need.

why cant u use the read command and check for mandatory parameters...ie. read $1,$2,$3,$4 and check $? -ne 4 then show the error message else continue with the process

sorry its not $? it should be $#. $? returns the status only

try this:assign the value of commands to a variable ie.

cmd1=$1
cmd2=$2
cmd3=$3
cmd4=$4
cmd5=$5

shift ${OPTIND}-1
if [[ $# -ne 5 ]]; then
echo "error in process"
exit 0
fi