
Expect.pm v1.13
===============

Expect requires IO::Tty and IO::Stty, also available from CPAN.  It is
highly recommended that you also upgrade to the latest IO::Tty (v0.9).
If you use the highly recommended CPAN module, there is a
Bundle::Expect available that installs everything for you.

If you prefer manual installation, the usual

  perl Makefile.PL
  make
  make test
  make install

should work.  I finally started a simple testsuite for Expect, but it
doesn't really test anything deeper right now.  The problem is to find
some external program to use for generating reproducible output that
is available across all platforms.  Luckily, we can always use perl
itself...  Contributions to the testsuite are of course welcome.

Note that IO::Tty is very system-dependend.  I have copied a lot from
the pty-creation code in the Tcl version of Expect and hope that this
fixes a lot of problems, e.g. with ssh and other programs that ask for
passwords.

The Perl Expect module was inspired more by the functionality of
Tcl/Expect than any previous Expect-like tool such as Comm.pl or
chat2.pl.

The Tcl version of Expect is a creation of Don Libes (libes@nist.gov)
and can be found at http://expect.nist.gov/.  Don has written an
excellent in-depth tutorial of Tcl/Expect, which is _Exploring
Expect_.  It is the O'Reilly book with the monkey on the front.  Don
has several references to other articles on the Expect web page.

I try to stay as close to Tcl/Expect in interface and semantics as
possible (so I can refer questions to the Tcl/Expect docu).
Suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

[Latest rumours have it that Don plans a rewrite of Expect as a
stand-alone library that can be easily embedded into various scripting
languages.]

There is now a FAQ section in the pod, complete with examples, so
please let me know if there's something you'd like to see answered
there that isn't.

There are two mailing lists available, expectperl-announce and
expectperl-discuss, at

  http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/expectperl-announce

and

  http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/expectperl-discuss


From the Changes file:
======================

! changed tests to check out pty behaviour (max. string length)

+ added various FAQ entries

+ added autoflush(1) to log_file

+ split 'new' and 'spawn' to be able to set slave pty params via stty
  before actually spawning the program

+ added slave_pty()

+ added print_log_file(), send() now no longer prints to log file or stdout.

+ added alarm to test.pl to avoid blocking on cygwin.

! spawn() now uses IO::Pty spawn, thus exec errors are reported and
  ssh should work too!

Thanks to everybody who wrote to me, either with bug reports or
enhancement suggestions!

Roland Giersig (maintainer of Expect.pm, IO::Tty, IO::Stty, Tie::Persistent)
RGiersig@cpan.org

2001-10-30
