416 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
416 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
--------------------
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Introduction
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--------------------
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This is the README file for Expect, a program that performs programmed
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dialogue with other interactive programs. It is briefly described by
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its man page, expect(1). This directory contains the source and man
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page for Expect.
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This is Expect 5 for Tcl 7.0 thru 7.4. Tk 3.3 thru 4.0 are also
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supported. If you have Expect 4 scripts, read the CHANGES.4to5 file.
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--------------------
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Getting Started - The Preferable Way
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--------------------
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A book on Expect is available from O'Reilly with the title "Exploring
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Expect: A Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Applications",
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ISBN 1-56592-090-2.
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The book is filled with detailed examples and explanations, and is a
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comprehensive tutorial to Expect. The book also includes a tutorial
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on Tcl written specifically for Expect users (so you don't have to
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read the Expect papers, the debugger paper, Ousterhout's book, or the
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man pages). Exploring Expect is 602 pages.
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If you have access to World Wide Web, here are some related URLs:
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one-paragraph description (from O'Reilly catalog):
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http://www.ora.com/gnn/bus/ora/item/expect.html
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one-page description (from back cover of book):
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http://www.ora.com/gnn/bus/ora/item/expect.desc.html
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front cover - picture and description:
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http://www.ora.com/gnn/bus/ora/item/expect.cover.html
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To order:
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Via email: order@ora.com
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Via the web: http://www.ora.com/gnn/bus/ora/ordering/index.html
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Via phone (Weekdays 6am-6pm PST): 800-889-9938 or 707-829-0515
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Publisher's address: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
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103A Morris Street
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Sebastopol, CA 95472
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O'Reilly also has available very pretty t-shirts with a blown-up
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picture of the artwork from the front cover.
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Getting Started - The Hacker Way
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--------------------
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While the book is the best way to learn about Expect, it is not
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absolutely necessary. There are man pages after all, plus I have
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published numerous papers on Expect. All of these papers are in the
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public domain and can be received free. If you are a hacker on a
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tight budget, this may appeal to you. Nonetheless, I think you will
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find the book pays for itself very quickly. It is much more readable
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than the man pages, it includes well-written and explained examples,
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and it describes everything in the papers as a coherent whole. The
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concepts in the papers actually only make up a small fraction of the
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book.
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The 1990 USENIX paper (see "Readings" below) is probably the best one
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for understanding Expect conceptually. The 1991 Computing Systems and
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the LISA IV papers provide a nice mix of examples. The only downside
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is, the examples in these papers don't actually work anymore - some
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aspects (e.g., syntax) of both Expect and Tcl have changed. The
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papers still make interesting reading - just don't study the examples
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too closely! Fortunately, most of the examples from the papers also
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accompany this distribution - and all of these are up to date.
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For all the details, read the man page. It is long but you can get
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started just by skimming the sections on the following commands:
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spawn (starts a process)
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send (sends to a process)
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expect (waits for output from a process)
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interact (lets you interact with a process)
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To print out the Expect man page, invoke your local troff using the
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-man macros, such as either of:
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ptroff -man expect.man
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ditroff -man expect.man
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If Expect is installed, you can read the man pages using the "usual"
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man commands, such as "man expect". If not installed, view the man
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page on your screen by saying something like:
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nroff -man expect.man | more
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Expect uses Tcl as the underlying language for expressing things such
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as procedures, loops, file I/O, and arithmetic expressions. For many
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simple scripts, it is not necessary to learn about Tcl. Just by
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studying the examples, you will learn enough Tcl to get by. But if
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you would like to learn more about Tcl or use it in your own
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applications, read the Tcl README file which provides pointers to the
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extensive Tcl documentation. Or read Exploring Expect. Chapter 2 of
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Exploring Expect is a Tcl tutorial specifically designed for Expect
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users.
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An interactive debugger is bundled with Expect. The debugger has its
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own documentation that comes separately. It is listed in the Readings
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below. Again, it is slightly out of date. An up-to-date description
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of the debugger appears in Chapter 18 of Exploring Expect. This
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chapter also contains additional advice and tips for debugging.
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You may get the feeling that the Expect documentation is somewhat
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scattered and disorganized. This was true prior to publication of
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Exploring Expect. The book contains everything you need to know, all
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up-to-date, and with examples of every concept. (The book contains no
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references to any of the Expect papers because none are necessary.)
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----------------------
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Examples
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----------------------
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This distribution contains many example scripts. (All of the
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substantive examples in the book are included.) They can be found in
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the example directory of this distribution. The README file in that
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directory briefly describes all of the example scripts. Many of the
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more sophisticated examples have man pages of their own.
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Other interesting scripts are available separately in the directory
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pub/expect/scripts at ftp.cme.nist.gov. (See below for how to
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retrieve these.) You are welcome to send me scripts to add to this
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directory. A number of Expect scripts are also available in the Tcl
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archive, available via anonymous ftp at ftp.aud.alcatel.com.
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--------------------
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Readings on Expect
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--------------------
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The implementation, philosophy, and design are discussed in "expect:
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Curing Those Uncontrollable Fits of Interaction", Proceedings of the
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Summer 1990 USENIX Conference, Anaheim, CA, June 11-15, 1990.
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Examples and discussion, specifically aimed at system administrators,
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are in "Using expect to Automate System Administration Tasks",
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Proceedings of the 1990 USENIX Large Systems Administration Conference
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(LISA) IV, Colorado Springs, CO, October 17-19, 1990.
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A comprehensive paper of example scripts is "expect: Scripts for
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Controlling Interactive Programs", Computing Systems, Vol. 4, No. 2,
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University of California Press Journals, 1991.
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Regression and conformance testing is discussed in "Regression Testing
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and Conformance Testing Interactive Programs", Proceedings of the
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Summer 1992 USENIX Conference, San Antonio, TX, June 8-12, 1992.
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An explanation of some of the more interesting source code to an early
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version of Expect is in Chapter 36 ("Expect") of "Obfuscated C and
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Other Mysteries", John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-57805-3, January 1993.
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A paper on connecting multiple interactive programs together using
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Expect is "Kibitz - Connecting Multiple Interactive Programs
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Together", Software - Practice & Experience, Vol. 23, No. 5, May 1993.
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The debugger is discussed in "A Debugger for Tcl Applications",
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Proceedings of the 1993 Tcl/Tk Workshop, Berkeley, CA, June 10-11,
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1993.
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Using Expect with Tk is described in the paper "X Wrappers for
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Non-Graphic Interactive Programs", Proceedings of Xhibition '94, San
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Jose, CA, June 20-24, 1994.
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Simple techniques to allow secure handling of passwords in background
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processes are covered in "Handling Passwords with Security and
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Reliability in Background Processes", Proceedings of the 1994 USENIX
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LISA VIII Conference, San Diego, CA, September 19-23, 1994.
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--------------------
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How to Get the Latest Version of Expect or the Readings
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Expect may be ftp'd as pub/expect/expect.tar.Z from ftp.cme.nist.gov.
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Request email delivery by mailing to "library@cme.nist.gov". The
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contents of the message should be (no subject line) "send
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pub/expect/expect.tar.Z". (Development versions of Expect may
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occasionally be made available as alpha.tar.Z in the same directory.)
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Once you have retrieved the system, read the INSTALL file. The papers
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mentioned above can be retrieved separately as:
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pub/expect/seminal.ps.Z (USENIX '90 - Intro and Implementation)
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pub/expect/sysadm.ps.Z (LISA '90 - System Administration)
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pub/expect/scripts.ps.Z (Computing Systems '91 - Overview of Scripts)
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pub/expect/regress.ps.Z (USENIX '92 - Testing)
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pub/expect/kibitz.ps.Z (SP&E '93 - Automating Multiple
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Interactive Programs Simultaneously)
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pub/expect/tcl-debug.ps.Z (Tcl/Tk '93 - Tcl/Tk Debugger)
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pub/expect/expectk.ps.Z (Xhibition '94 - Using Expect with Tk)
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pub/expect/bgpasswd.ps.Z (LISA '94 - Passwds in Background Procs)
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The book "Exploring Expect" is described in more detail earlier in
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this file.
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The book "Obfuscated C and Other Mysteries" is not on-line but is
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available in bookstores or directly from the publisher (Wiley).
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Overhead transparencies I've used at conferences are also available in
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the same way as the papers themselves. The transparencies are sketchy
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and not meant for personal education - however if you are familiar
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with Expect and just want to give a short talk on it to your
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colleagues, you may find the transparencies useful. They vary in
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length from 15 to 20 minutes in length. These are:
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pub/expect/seminal-talk.ps.Z (USENIX '90 - Intro and Implementation)
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pub/expect/sysadm-talk.ps.Z (LISA '90 - System Administration)
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pub/expect/regress-talk.ps.Z (USENIX '92 - Testing)
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pub/expect/tcl-debug-talk.ps.Z (Tcl/Tk '93 - Tcl/Tk Debugger)
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pub/expect/expectk-talk.ps.Z (Xhibition '94 - Expect + Tk = Expectk)
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pub/expect/bgpasswd-talk.ps.Z (LISA '94 - Passwords in the Background)
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All of the documents are compressed PostScript files and should be
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uncompressed and sent to a PostScript printer. The documents are
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intended for printing at 8.5"x11" and may fail on some ISO A4
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printers. According to Hans Mayer <Hans.Mayer@gmd.de>, you can make
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them A4-able by searching for "FMVERSION" and changing the next line
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from:
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1 1 0 0 612 792 0 1 13 FMDOCUMENT
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to:
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1 1 0 0 594 841 0 1 13 FMDOCUMENT
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--------------------
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Using Expect with and without Tcl and/or Tk.
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--------------------
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The usual way of using Expect is as a standalone program with Tcl as
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the control language. Since you may already have Tcl, it is available
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separately. Tcl may be retrieved as pub/expect/tcl.tar.Z in the same
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way as described above for Expect. When new releases of Tcl appear, I
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will try to check them out for Expect as soon as possible. If you
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would like to get the newest Tcl release without waiting, ftp it from
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ftp.smli.com (directory pub/tcl).
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Expect may also be built using the Tk library, a Tcl interface to the
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X Window System. Tk is available in the same way as Tcl.
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It is possible to embed the Expect/Tcl core and optionally Tk in your
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own C programs. This is described in libexpect(3).
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Expect can also be used from a C or C++ program without Tcl. This is
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described in libexpect(3). While I consider this library to be easy
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to use, the standalone Expect program is much, much easier to use than
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working with the C compiler and its usual edit, compile, debug cycle.
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Unlike typical programming, most of the debugging isn't getting the C
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compiler to accept your programs - rather, it is getting the dialogue
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correct. Also, translating scripts from Expect to C is usually not
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necessary. For example, the speed of interactive dialogues is
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virtually never an issue. So please try 'expect' first. It is a more
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appropriate tool than the library for most people.
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--------------------
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Systems Supported
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--------------------
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I do not know of any UNIX systems on which Expect will not run.
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Systems which do not support select or poll can use Expect, but
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without the ability to run multiple processes simultaneously. I am
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willing to work with you to complete a port.
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Before sending me changes, please download or verify that you have the
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latest version of Expect (see above). Then send me a "diff -c" along
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with a suitable English explanation. If your diff involves something
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specific to a machine, give me diffs for configure.in as well or give
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me a hint about when the diffs should be done so I can write the
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configure support myself. Also please include the version of the OS
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and whether it is beta, current, recent, or totally out-of-date and
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unsupported.
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--------------------
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Installing Expect
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--------------------
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Expect comes with a configure script that provides for an automated
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installation. I believe you will find that Expect is very easy to
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install. (Tcl and Tk, too.)
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For more information, read the INSTALL file.
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--------------------
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History
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--------------------
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Expect was conceived of in September, 1987. The bulk of version 2 was
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designed and written between January and April, 1990. Minor evolution
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occurred after that until Tcl 6.0 was released. At that time
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(October, 1991) approximately half of Expect was rewritten for version
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3. See the HISTORY file for more information. The HISTORY file may
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be retrieved separately as pub/expect/HISTORY.
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Around January 1993, an alpha version of Expect 4 was introduced.
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This included Tk support as well as a large number of enhancements. A
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few changes were made to the user interface itself, which is why the
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major version number was changed. A production version of Expect 4
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was released in August 1993.
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In October 1993, an alpha version of Expect 5 was released to match
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Tcl 7.0. A large number of enhancements were made, including some
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changes to the user interface itself, which is why the major version
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number was changed (again). This documentation and software
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distribution is the production version of Expect 5 - initially
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released in March '94.
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Some of the papers listed above correspond to earlier versions
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although they are still good ways to learn about Expect. There are
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important differences between Expect 3, 4, and 5. See the CHANGES.*
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files if you want to read about them. Expect 4 has ceased further
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development and is not supported. However, if for some reason you
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want the old code, it is available from pub/expect/old as described
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above.
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The book became available around January '95. It describes Expect 5
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as it is today, rather than how Expect 5 was when it was originally
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released. Thus, if you have not upgraded Expect since before getting
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the book, you should upgrade now.
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--------------------
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Support from Don Libes or NIST
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--------------------
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Although I can't promise anything in the way of support, I'd be
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interested to hear about your experiences using it (good or bad). I'm
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also interested in hearing bug reports and suggestions for improvement
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even though I can't promise to implement them.
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If you send me a bug, fix, or question, include the version of Expect
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(as reported by expect -d), version of Tcl, and name and version of
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the OS that you are using. Before sending mail, it may be helpful to
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verify that your problem still exists in the latest version. You can
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check on the current release and whether it addresses your problems by
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retrieving the latest HISTORY file (see "History" above).
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Awards, love letters, and bug reports may be sent to:
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Don Libes
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National Institute of Standards and Technology
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Bldg 220, Rm A-127
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Gaithersburg, MD 20899
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(301) 975-3535
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libes@nist.gov
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I hereby place this software in the public domain. NIST and I would
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appreciate credit if this program or parts of it are used.
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Design and implementation of this program was funded primarily by
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myself. Funding contributors include the NIST Automated Manufacturing
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Research Facility (funded by the Navy Manufacturing Technology
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Program), the NIST Scientific and Technical Research Services, the
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ARPA Persistent Object Bases project and the Computer-aided
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Acquisition and the Logistic Support (CALS) program of the Office of
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the Secretary of Defense.
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Especially signicant contributions were made by John Ousterhout, Henry
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Spencer, and Rob Savoye. See the HISTORY file for others.
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--------------------
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Support for Don Libes or NIST
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--------------------
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NIST accepts external funding and other resources (hardware, software,
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and personnel). This can be a fine way to work more closely with NIST
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and encourage particular areas of research.
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Funding can be earmarked for specific purposes or for less-specific
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purposes. For example, if you simply like the work I do, you can
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contribute directly to my funding which will reduce the amount of time
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I have to spend writing proposals and submitting them to other people
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for funding on my own.
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I can also participate in the NIST Fellows program allowing me to
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spend several months to a year working directly with your company and
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potentially even at your location. I am also interested in returning
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to an academic program. I presently have an MS and am hunting for
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Ph.D. topics and advisors. Let me know if you have ideas or are
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interested in being my advisor.
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--------------------
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Commercial Support
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--------------------
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Several companies provide commercial support for Expect. If your
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company has a financial investment in Expect or you wish to be assured
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of continuing support for Expect, you can buy a support contract this
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way. These companies currently include:
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Cygnus Support
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1937 Landings Drive
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Mountain View, CA 94043
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+1 (415) 903-1400
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info@cygnus.com
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Computerized Processes Unlimited
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4200 S. I-10 Service Rd., Suite 205
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Metairie, LA 70006
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+1 (504) 889-2784
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info@cpu.com
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Neither NIST nor I have any commercial relationship with these
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companies. Cygnus is in the process of signing an agreement with NIST
|
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that describes its non-exclusive position to support Expect. Other
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companies are welcome to apply for such an agreement or other kinds of
|
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agreements such as permission-to-use. Strictly speaking, such
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agreements are not necessary, however they make us look good to our
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funding source, the U.S. Congress.
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Note that Cygnus does not sell support for Expect explicitly. But
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they will support Expect if you buy support for their DejaGnu product
|
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which is a testing framework built on top of Expect.
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