Requests
often arrive for the magic needed to get
Expect to control more(1) or a similar pager so as to see a "whole report" automatically, and not have to step through the screens the pager affords. These pleas are often mistaken, in the sense that most report generators and/or pagers have what amounts to a show-it-all mode, and so don't
require Expect's blessings.
As a model of the value of
exp_continue, though, this problem is valuable. An example solution follows.
[Explain context, how "pager" here means something like "more" or "less", not
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pager, ...] [Explain
eof vs. a remote prompt, ...]
package require Expect
set more_prompt "--More-- or (q)uit"
set more_prompt %)
set shell_prompt {$ }
set go_ahead_reply " "
set example_textfile /etc/passwd
log_user 0
spawn more $example_textfile
expect -- $more_prompt {send $go_ahead_reply
puts "The current display is in exp_out(buffer)."
exp_continue
} $shell_prompt {
puts "This is a branch for a remote process."
} eof {
puts "That's the end."
} timeout {
puts "This is strange."
}Here's a more reduced example of the same ideas, one which takes advantage of the expect command's other pattern-action syntax:
set m "--More--"
expect -- {
$m {send " ";exp_continue}
"# " {# Done!}
}
