[plug] .telnetrc or Expect for telnet automation?

Peter Caffin pc at it.net.au
Thu Apr 22 15:09:09 WST 1999


On Sun, 18 Apr 1999, Andrew Howell wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 17, 1999 at 01:30:12PM +0800, Peter Caffin wrote:
> > Something else I've seen mentioned is Expect, which appears to be a more
> > general scripting program for "interactive" scripting. If I can't find
> > info on .telnetrc, I'll probably go down this path.. but I'd prefer not to.
> 
> I had to do this the other day and didn't find .telnetrc could actually
> submit a password from my quick look, I ended up using expect.

Yep, I ended up working with expect, which does just about everything I
needed it to do. The only mildy sore point is that it doesn't pass
non-text all that well.

To have workable screen settings when telnetting from a Linux console to a
SCO box requires that you set the TERM variable to vt100 and then execute
`stty erase <backspace>`. While that character can be added to the script
using vi, the expect script ignores it..

For now, I let it end at the end of `stty erase ` and manually press
backspace and return (silly? yes, it feels it). Anyone heard of a better
alternative?...

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