Question

In my expect script following code sample is making me a lot of troubles

#!/usr/bin/expect
#some other code
set psucommand "psu |grep -v grep | grep $jobname\r"
#some other code
expect "env[lindex $argv 0]>" {send $psucommand}
expect {
"$jobname" {
        send_user "$jobname"
        send "exit\r"}
"env[lindex $argv 0]>" {
        send_user ""
        send "exit\r"}
}

This second “expect” is trying (successfully) to match the actual $psucommand (psu |grep -v grep | grep ACTUALJOBNAME\r) I send to the spawned process, and I need only the spawned process’s output to be matched.

Here’s what I see near the end when I run this script with expect -d

expect: does " psu |grep -v grep | grep ACTUALJOBNAME\r\n" (spawn_id exp6) match glob pattern "ACTUALJOBNAME"? yes

It’s matching my command I sent to the spawned process. I need to avoid this.

Help!

Answer 1

set psucommand [format {psu | grep [%s]%s} \
                   [string index $jobname 0] \
                   [string range $jobname 1 end]]

This results in psucommand being psu | grep [A]CTUALJOBNAME

So, you need to send "$psucommand\r" but expecting on $jobname should not pickup the command.