How to start a shell script within “expect script”

Question

In this expect script there will be no ssh server connected, I just want to execute a ".sh" file locally, is that possible?

For instance:

#!/bin/expect

command "xxx.sh" # a command which starts a certain shell script

Also, is it possible to execute a expect script within a expect script?

For instance:

#!/bin/expect

command "xxx.exp" # a command which starts a certain expect script

Any help?

Answer 1

The command in Expect to run a shell command is spawn.

#!/bin/expect
spawn command arg1 arg2 ...

command can be any program -- a binary executable, a shell script, another expect script, etc. So you can do:

spawn xxx.sh

or:

spawn xxx.exp

Answer 2

If you need to interact with this script, use spawn xxx.sh

If you just need to run it and capture the output, use set output [exec xxx.sh]

Expect is an extension of the Tcl language, so you would be well served to go through the Tcl tutorial.