runscript - script interpreter for minicom
runscript scriptname [logfile [homedir]]
runscript is a simple script interpreter that can be called from within
the minicom communications program to automate tasks like logging in to a Unix
system or your favorite BBS.
The program expects a script name and optionally a filename and the user's home
directory as arguments, and it expects that it's input and output are
connected to the "remote end", the system you are connecting to. All
messages from
runscript meant for the local screen are directed to the
stderr output. All this is automatically taken care of if you run it
from
minicom. The logfile and home directory parameters are only used
to tell the log command the name of the logfile and where to write it. If the
homedir is omitted, runscript uses the directory found in the $HOME
environment variable. If also the logfile name is omitted, the log commands
are ignored.
- Runscript recognizes the following commands:
-
expect send goto gosub return !< !
exit print set inc dec if timeout
verbose sleep break call log
- send <string>
- <string> is sent to the modem. It is followed by a
'\r'. <string> can be:
- regular text, e.g. 'send hello'
- text enclosed in quotes, e.g. 'send "hello world"'
-
Within <string> the following sequences are recognized:
-
\n - newline
\r - carriage return
\a - bell
\b - backspace
\c - don't send the default '\r'.
\f - formfeed
\^ - the ^ character
\o - send character o (o is an octal number)
Control characters can be used in the string with the ^ prefix (^A to ^Z,
^[, ^ ^], ^^ and ^_). If you need to send the ^ character, you must prefix
it with the \ escape character.
Octal characters are either four-digit or delimited by a non-digit
character, e.g. the null character may be sent with \0000 and 'send 1234'
is equivalent to 'send \0061234'.
Also $(environment_variable) can be used, for example $(TERM). Minicom
passes three special environment variables: $(LOGIN), which is the
username, $(PASS), which is the password, as defined in the proper entry
of the dialing directory, and $(TERMLIN) which is the number of actual
terminal lines on your screen (that is, the statusline excluded).
- print <string>
- Prints <string> to the local screen. Default followed
by '\r\n'. See the description of 'send' above.
- label:
- Declares a label (with the name 'label') to use with goto
or gosub.
- goto <label>
- Jump to another place in the program.
- gosub <label>
- Jumps to another place in the program. When the statement
'return' is encountered, control returns to the statement after the gosub.
Gosub's can be nested.
- return
- Return from a gosub.
- ! <command>
- Runs a shell for you in which 'command' is executed. On
return, the variable '$?' is set to the exit status of this command, so
you can subsequently test it using 'if'.
- !< <command>
- Runs a shell for you in which 'command' is executed. The
stdout output of the command execution will be sent to the modem. On
return, the variable '$?' is set to the exit status of this command, so
you can subsequently test it using 'if'.
- exit [value]
- Exit from "runscript" with an optional exit
status. (default 1)
- set <variable> <value>
- Sets the value of <variable> (which is a single
letter a-z) to the value <value>. If <variable> does not
exist, it will be created. <value> can be a integer value or another
variable.
- inc <variable>
- Increments the value of <variable> by one.
- dec <variable>
- Decrements the value of <variable> by one.
- if <value> <operator> <value>
<statement>
- Conditional execution of <statement>.
<operator> can be <, >, != or =. Eg, 'if a > 3 goto
exitlabel'.
- timeout <value>
- Sets the global timeout. By default, 'runscript' will exit
after 120 seconds. This can be changed with this command. Warning: this
command acts differently within an 'expect' statement, but more about that
later.
- verbose <on|off>
- By default, this is 'on'. That means that anything that is
being read from the modem by 'runscript', gets echoed to the screen. This
is so that you can see what 'runscript' is doing.
- sleep <value>
- Suspend execution for <value> seconds.
- expect
-
expect {
pattern [statement]
pattern [statement]
[timeout <value> [statement] ]
....
}
The most important command of all. Expect keeps reading from the input until
it reads a pattern that matches one of the specified ones. If expect
encounters an optional statement after that pattern, it will execute it.
Otherwise the default is to just break out of the expect. 'pattern' is a
string, just as in 'send' (see above). Normally, expect will timeout in 60
seconds and just exit, but this can be changed with the timeout
command.
- break
- Break out of an 'expect' statement. This is normally only
useful as argument to 'timeout' within an expect, because the default
action of timeout is to exit immediately.
- call <scriptname>
- Transfers control to another script file. When that script
file finishes without errors, the original script will continue.
- log <text>
- Write text to the logfile.
If you want to make your script to exit minicom (for example when you use
minicom to dial up your ISP, and then start a PPP or SLIP session from a
script), try the command "! killall -9 minicom" as the last script
command. The -9 option should prevent minicom from hanging up the line and
resetting the modem before exiting.
Well, I don't think this is enough information to make you an experienced
'programmer' in 'runscript', but together with the examples it shouldn't be
too hard to write some useful script files. Things will be easier if you have
experience with BASIC. The
minicom source code comes together with two
example scripts,
scriptdemo and
unixlogin. Especially the last
one is a good base to build on for your own scripts.
minicom(1)
Runscript should be built in to minicom.
Miquel van Smoorenburg, <
[email protected]> Jukka Lahtinen,
<
[email protected]>