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expect-lite


Automation for the rest of us


What is it?

expect-lite is an quick and easy command line automation tool.

Written in expect, it is designed to directly map an interactive terminal session into an automation script. expect-lite scripts use special character(s) at the beginning of each line to indicate the action. Basic expect-lite scripts can be created by simply cutting and pasting text from a terminal window into a script, and adding '>' '<' characters. No knowledge of expect is required!

Includes a Powerful Debugger with breakpoints, step/skip, copy/paste expect-lite lines right into a running script.

Expect-lite is targeted at the verification testing environment, and will produce a Pass/Fail result at the end of the script. However, its use is not limited to this environment.

What is it for? 

A simple to use automation tool to do:
  • Functional, System, Regression Testing.
  • White or black box Testing.
  • Automated Router Configuration.
  • Compiler validation.
  • etc.

What New?

Latest version 4.1.0 improvements include:
  • Improved Documenation
  • Misc fixes to *FORK (multi-session control)
  • New Library mode, for integration into native TCL environments. See documentation.

Philosophy

The main purpose is keep it simple. However, the advanced features allow pretty creative scripting.

The central ideas behind the design are:

  • Just keep it simple and portable - it runs on Linux, Mac OS X, *nix, and Windows(with cygwin).
  • Make the automator's life easier.

Examples

Check the IP address of the localhost

>ipconfig
<192\.168\.1\.1

ssh to a remote host

>ssh root@host-021
<assword:
>secret_password
# issue a command once logged in
>ls
>exit
expect-lite includes over 25 example scripts covering topics such as: if statements, looping, multiple sessions, random number generation, and more.

Where to get it?

The most recent version is always available on SourceForge:

Download expect-lite



12 April 2011
http://expect-lite.sourceforge.net/

this document for version 4.1.0 and above