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

What is Expect? Why use it? - Tcl/Tk module T211

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 course 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)

Specialist books

Opentalk forum discussions related to this topic

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Expect for Windows
Can I combine Expect and Tk
Almost same Problem

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.

Course links

The following web pages are used as references / examples in this module

[Link] Expect for Windows NT
(at http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/expectnt.html)

We check these links from time to time with a spider written in PHP. Latest full check was on Saturday, 12th June 2004. Titles are extracted from the web pages listed.

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 600 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.