greater than

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!

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 (black) box Testing.
  • Automated Router Configuration.
  • Compiler validation.
  • etc.

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



24 May 2010
http://expect-lite.sourceforge.net/

this document for version 3.6.0 and above