[[ [Expect] is wonderful.  Its role in the past was quite large.]]





[[Now there are often strictly superior approaches for many problems
that would have been solved in the past with Expect.]]


So the title can be expanded: Many people who [b]know[/b] they need Expect...do not need Expect.


[[On another hand, Expect still has many uses that programmers do
'''not''' know.]]



----
So, here are examples of more modern ways to do things that
once would have been best with Expect:
   * [[ [ftp] ]] - [Sarnold] Isn't '''wget''' a better solution ? See also [Download Accelerator].
   * [[mail without [smtp] and [smtp with attachments]]
   * [[ [IMAP] automation]], [pop3] example [http://groups.google.com/groups?th=aad3f41f08831821]
   * [[ [telnet] ]]
   * [SNMP], snmpget, ...:  [Scotty] is such a wonderful thing
   * '''usermod''' instead of '''passwd'''
   * ...




----
"Others have given you answers to your immediate problem. I would suggest 
you look at cfengine as a longer term solution. The problem you 
described could have been trivially solved by adding a few lines to the 
cfengine master files at the policy server. On the next scheduled run, 
all the servers would have downloaded the new config file, seen the new 
instructions and implemented them."  [[Rework, explain, ...]]

----
[Category Expect]