source: chapter08/expect.xml@ a9b946e

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<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
  %general-entities;
]>

<sect1 id="ch-system-expect" role="wrap">
  <?dbhtml filename="expect.html"?>

  <sect1info condition="script">
    <productname>expect</productname>
    <productnumber>&expect-version;</productnumber>
    <address>&expect-url;</address>
  </sect1info>

  <title>Expect-&expect-version;</title>

  <indexterm zone="ch-system-expect">
    <primary sortas="a-Expect">Expect</primary>
  </indexterm>

  <sect2 role="package">
    <title/>

    <para>The <application>Expect</application> package contains tools for
    automating, via scripted dialogues, interactive applications such as
    <command>telnet</command>, <command>ftp</command>,
    <command>passwd</command>, <command>fsck</command>,
    <command>rlogin</command>, and <command>tip</command>.
    <application>Expect</application> is also useful for testing these same
    applications as well as easing all sorts of tasks that are prohibitively
    difficult with anything else. The <application>DejaGnu</application>
    framework is written in <application>Expect</application>.</para>

    <segmentedlist>
      <segtitle>&buildtime;</segtitle>
      <segtitle>&diskspace;</segtitle>

      <seglistitem>
        <seg>&expect-tmp-sbu;</seg>
        <seg>&expect-tmp-du;</seg>
      </seglistitem>
    </segmentedlist>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="installation">
    <title>Installation of Expect</title>

    <para>Expect needs PTYs to work.  Verify that the PTYs are working
    properly inside the chroot environment by performing a simple
    test:</para>

<screen><userinput remap="test">python3 -c 'from pty import spawn; spawn(["echo", "ok"])'</userinput></screen>

    <para>This command should output <computeroutput>ok</computeroutput>.
    If, instead, the output includes <computeroutput>OSError: out of pty
    devices</computeroutput>, then the environment is not set up for proper
    PTY operation.  You need to exit from the chroot environment, read
    <xref linkend='ch-tools-kernfs'/> again, and ensure the
    <systemitem class="filesystem">devpts</systemitem> file system (and
    other virtual kernel file systems) mounted correctly.  Then reenter
    the chroot environment following <xref linkend='ch-tools-chroot'/>.
    This issue needs to be resolved before continuing, or the test suites
    requiring Expect (for example the test suites of Bash, Binutils, GCC,
    GDBM, and of course Expect itself) will fail catastrophically, and other
    subtle breakages may also happen.</para>

    <para>Prepare Expect for compilation:</para>

<screen><userinput remap="configure">./configure --prefix=/usr           \
            --with-tcl=/usr/lib     \
            --enable-shared         \
            --mandir=/usr/share/man \
            --with-tclinclude=/usr/include</userinput></screen>

    <variablelist>
      <title>The meaning of the configure options:</title>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><parameter>--with-tcl=/usr/lib</parameter></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This parameter is needed to tell
          <command>configure</command> where the
          <command>tclConfig.sh</command> script is located.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><parameter>--with-tclinclude=/usr/include</parameter></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This explicitly tells Expect where to find Tcl's internal
          headers.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

    <para>Build the package:</para>

<screen><userinput remap="make">make</userinput></screen>

    <para>To test the results, issue:</para>

<screen><userinput remap="test">make test</userinput></screen>

    <para>Install the package:</para>

<screen><userinput remap="install">make install
ln -svf expect&expect-version;/libexpect&expect-version;.so /usr/lib</userinput></screen>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 id="contents-expect" role="content">
    <title>Contents of Expect</title>

    <segmentedlist>
      <segtitle>Installed program</segtitle>
      <segtitle>Installed library</segtitle>

      <seglistitem>
        <seg>expect</seg>
        <seg>libexpect&expect-version;.so</seg>
      </seglistitem>
    </segmentedlist>

    <variablelist>
      <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
      <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
      <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>

      <varlistentry id="expect">
        <term><command>expect</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Communicates with other interactive programs according
          to a script</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-expect expect">
            <primary sortas="b-expect">expect</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libexpect">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libexpect-&expect-version;.so</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Contains functions that allow Expect to be used as a Tcl
          extension or to be used directly from C or C++ (without Tcl)</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-expect libexpect">
            <primary sortas="c-libexpect-&expect-version;">libexpect-&expect-version;</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

  </sect2>

</sect1>