Expect is known primarily as an indispensable application for system administrators.  Amazingly enough, it is, at its heart, Just Another [Tcl] Extension (JATE).

People use Expect to automate interaction with non-[GUI] (and typically non-cursor-controlled, even though a persevering Expect programmer can tackle them, too) applications that prompt the user for input.

Examples of commands that often appear in Expect scripts are the [Unix] passwd, [ftp], [telnet], and command-line shells.  Expect is the natural answer for those who want to automate password changes, or periodically update FTP sites, or check the statuses of a collection of remote systems by logging in.

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**External Resources**

http://expect.nist.gov/ was the original home Web site for Expect.  It supplies sources and considerable history, background, and instruction.  It does fail to mention, though, recognition
[http://nvl.nist.gov/pub/nistpubs/sp958-lide/cntsp958.htm]
of Expect as one of the 100 most important publications of NIST's [http://www.nist.gov] first century.

The current maintenance of the package can be found at http://expect.sf.net/ , with access to the CVS available via sf.net's cvs repository. Note that the link (on the sf.net primary page) for the CVS repository is out of date; visit http://sf.net/projects/expect/ and use the link there to look at the cvs repository from your web browser.

This package is part of the [ActiveTcl] Batteries Included distribution on unix and as of 2005, the Windows version is available via ActiveTcl as well [http://blogs.activestate.com/activestate/2005/09/expect_for_wind.html].

[ActiveState] maintains online copies of documentation at [http://www.tcl.tk/man/expect5.31/index.html].

There's an expect FAQ here: http://expect.nist.gov/FAQ.html .

There's a book called [BOOK Exploring Expect] to which most people refer when asked questions about Expect.

[CL] keeps a bit of supplementary information on Expect at [http://phaseit.net/claird/comp.lang.tcl/expect.html].

[Expect External Resources] gives pointers to some wiki-external Expect material.

''[escargo] 11 Sep 2007'' - I found an '''expect-lite''' project on [SourceForge]: http://expect-lite.sourceforge.net/

[LV] 2007 Nov 09

expect4j [http://code.google.com/p/expect4j/] provides a certain level of expect's functionality to the [Jacl] / [Java] programmer.  Package author Justin Ryan reports on the TclJava mailing list
[http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=67e5f3da0711080735k4820242ascc219f87c52ac45d%40mail.gmail.com&forum_name=tcljava-user]
''I've successfully ported a 100K tcl script based on expect to tcljava, without any changes, by just using expect4j.''


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'''Wiki-Local Expect Resources''':

   * [Expect FAQ]

   * [Expect Hints and Tips]

   * [Expect Examples]

   * [Expect Tutorials]

   * [Debugging Expect programs]

   * [Remote input-output with Expect]

   * [Secure expect]

   * [Expect for languages other than Tcl]

   * [Most programmers don't know what Expect can do for them]

   * [I am new to Expect]

   * [Event-oriented Expect]

   * [Expect vs. Tcl]

   * [Network programming with Expect]

   * [Expect and Tclkit]

   * "[Expect and choice]"

   * "[It seems like Expect is not actively developed]"

   * [overlay]

   * Simplify the [handling of ANSI terminals using Expect] or [send special characters]

   * [Stubsification of Expect]

   * [An example wherein Expect controls a pager]

   * ["expect_out(buffer) has the content of the previous send"]

   * [Calc_Object]

   * [How Expect can capture the exit code from a remote command]

   * [Expect for Windows]

   * [Expect for languages other than Tcl]

   * [Checking your IMAP mail with Expect]

   * [How to access the result of a remote command in Expect]

   * "[Many people who think they need Expect do not need Expect]"

   * [Expect's frequently-made mistakes]

   * [How Expect sees function keys]

   * [How to send escape characters through Expect]

   * [Pipes vs Expect]

   * [expectk]

   * [expect in pure tcl]

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'''Expect Articles'''

   1. Don explains how far from trivial pty management is, and other lessons, in his memoir [http://expect.nist.gov/doc/seven-years.html] on Expect's first seven years.

   1. "Expect Success" [http://www.samag.com/documents/s=7824/sam0310web1/sam0310web1.html] is, for [Kim Richert], "the best Expect article I've read".

   1. "Expect--the only language you need" [http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-sc1/?n-l-4112]

   1. "Expect:  The Firefighter's Friend" [http://www.samag.com/documents/s=7237/sam0207a/0207a.htm]

   1. "Unknown Expect" [http://www.samag.com/documents/s=9035/sam0402web1/]

   1. "Test-driven development, Expect, and Systems Administration" [http://www.samag.com/documents/s=7824/sam0312web2/sam0312web2.htm]

   1. http://www.csc.calpoly.edu/~dbutler/tutorials/winter96/expect/tutorial.html

   1. "Expect plays a crucial role in network management" [http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-expect/]
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[LV] Note that '''expect''' is also a command that is a part of the expect extension; see http://www.tcl.tk/man/expect5.31/expect.1.html for the doc.

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