perl scipt:syntax error of unexpected token while spawing bash command using expect module

0
votes

I am writing perl script to copy a directory to remote machine. I am using an expect module to expect the password and send password.

But getting a syntax error as below

sh: -c: line 0: syntax error near unexpected token scp'
sh: -c: line 0:system(scp -r /home/user1/data/ 192.168.0.1:/tmp/)'

perl script is:

use Expect;  
$Expect::Debug=2;

$cmd="scp -r /home/user1/data/ 192.168.0.1:/tmp/";

my $exp1=Expect-> spawn("system($cmd)") or die print "cannot spwan process\n";


$exp1-> expect(10,["[email protected]'s password: "=>sub{ $exp1-> send("usr1234\r");}]);

Thank you in advance

2
perlexpect
Don't you just want spawn($cmd) instead of spawn("system($cmd)") ? - Red Cricket
spawn($cmd) is not giving the error.. - ar777
As soon as I execute this script putting on a debug [email protected]'s password: Waiting for new data (10 seconds)... is appearing ..at this point it doesn't get any data....so the password isn't send... can you help me on this....leeduhem - ar777
error is not appearing again, but expect couldn't send the password now..as string it supposed to expect is already appeared even before it started expecting.... - ar777
That should not happen. If the output appears on the console it normally means, that Expect is done with it. For example if the object is destructed or if you explicitly empty the handle. I would assume that it is matched immediately but your sub fails to do what you want it to. - DeVadder

2 Answers

2
votes

spawn expects a shell command, not Perl code. So:

my $exp1=Expect-> spawn($cmd)) or die;

The error message you see is just your shell saying it doesn't know what to do with 'system(scp...'.

And: You'll want to mask the '@'.

0
votes

I am not entirely sure what goes wrong in your script (execpt for the spawn(system($cmd)) of course, but that is solved in the comments already. Maybe the => is not needed? Or you need to end the password with \n instead of \r? Anyways, it is quite simple minded. I used something like the following to great effect (note that $rsync is my Expect object).

    $rsync=Expect->spawn ("rsync $remUser\@$remIp:$remFiles $locFolder");

    if (! defined($rsync))
    {
        die "spawning failed. Probably fork failed: $!";
    }

    my $matchStatus = $rsync->expect(100, '-re', '(.+)');

    if (! defined $matchStatus)
    {
        die "Nothing got returned within 100 seconds. $!";
    }

    my $spawned = 0;
    while ($spawned eq 0)
    {
        my $return = $rsync->match();

        if ($return =~ m/command not found/)
        {
            die "Command not found, there appears to be no rsync... $!";
        }
        elsif ($return =~ m/RSA key fingerprint is/)
        {
            $rsync->send ("yes\n");
            sleep(5);
        }
        elsif ($return =~ m/password/)
        {
            $rsync->send($password,"\n");
            $spawned = 1;
        }
        else 
        {
            print "rsync answered:\n\n";
            print "$return \n";
            print "I did not expect that. EXIT\n";
            exit(1);
        }
    }

print "Sent Pw...\n";

That handles more different answers and can more easily be modified and debugged. But is a lot longer obviously. I prefer explicit to elegant though.