Tcl/Tk - What is Expect? Why use it?

Tcl/Tk module T211

What is Expect? Why use it?

Exercises, examples and other material relating to training module T211. This topic is presented on public courses Learning to program in Tcl, Tcl Basics

Tcl Programming - training course - The Tcl programming language, and Expect

Tcl Programming - The Tcl programming language, and Expect This course covers the fundamentals of the Tcl programming language. You'll learn about Tcl ...

http://www.wellho.net/course/tbfull.html [course]

Learning to Program in Tcl - training course - The Tcl programming language, and Expect

Learning to Program in Tcl - The Tcl programming language, and Expect This course covers the fundamentals of the Tcl programming language. You'll learn ...

http://www.wellho.net/course/tlfull.html [course]

Installing Tcl and Expect on Solaris 10 - a checklist

Hot off the presses from the last couple of days - a check list (and a couple of "Gotcha" notes) concerning the installation of Tcl and Expect on a Solaris ...

http://www.wellho.net/mouth/1174_Ins ... klist.html [short article]

A Web interface for your Linux admin tasks

Do you need to set up and maintain a whole load of accounts for users on your web server - giving them each their own area of the LAMP server, log in ...

http://www.wellho.net/solutions/php-a-we ... tasks.html [longer article]

Expect for Windows

I've just noticed on the Activestate site that "the ActiveTcl distribution now includes Expect for Windows. A license is no longer required ....". At ...

http://www.wellho.net/mouth/435_Expe ... ndows.html [short article]

First Expect example

#!/usr/bin/expect # Simple Expect program - no error checking, just run a series of statements puts "Getting log file from otter" spawn ftp expect ...

http://www.wellho.net/resources/ex.php4?item=t211/ftp1 [code sample]

Cheat Sheet / Check list for Expect maintainers

Programming in Expect can be very different (and more challenging) than conventional programming. Rather than write code (structured, if you like) through ...

http://www.wellho.net/mouth/1173_Che ... iners.html [short article]

Expect is a Tcl extension that's heavily used by perhaps a third of our trainees. If you have an application that's designed for a human user, but you want to run it automatically, expect lets you mimic the human actions via a series of send and expect commands.

This topic is presented on public courses Learning to program in Tcl, Tcl Basics

Examples from our training material

e1	Simplest ping check via expect
e2	Ping via expect, echo back a value from the report
e3	expect - do not grab indeterminate
ftp1	First Expect example
ftp2	Expect with some error checking and decisions
linksandimages	Grab a web page, report all links and images
plet.exp	Expect for Windows - ping a host and guess its distance from you
weblinks	Grab a web page and report all links
wuff	Expecting from a list (regular expression)
yap	Expecting from a list (expect block)

Pictures

Tcl and Expect - a great way to handle interaction

Background information

Some modules are available for download as a sample of our material or under an Open Training Notes License for free download from http://www.training-notes.co.uk.

Topics covered in this module

Sample problems.
A regular task.
A solution.
Software testing.
A possible solution.
What else is Expect?.
Expect commands.
spawn, expect and send.
More on the expect command.
Not wanting to echo what you expected?.
Not knowing what to expect?.
Variables set by expect.
Expect patterns.
Running Expect on Windows platforms.

Complete learning

If you are looking for a complete course and not just a information on a single subject, visit our Listing and schedule page.

Well House Consultants specialise in training courses in Tcl/Tk, Expect,Python, Perl, PHP, and MySQL. We run Private Courses throughout the UK (and beyond for longer courses), and Public Courses at our training centre in Melksham, Wiltshire, England. It's surprisingly cost effective to come on our public courses - even if you live in a different country or continent to us.

We have a technical library of over 700 books on the subjects on which we teach. These books are available for reference at our training centre. Also available is the Opentalk Forum for discussion of technical questions.