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How to execute Unix shell script from Windows?

Unix Scripting

  • Unix scripting question- how do I automate an interactive command-line application? [MI] I'm using a proprietary FTP application to transmit a file each day, and pick up a receipt of the prior day's file. The application accepts various command line switches that let me execute the upload as a single command, which is fine. Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the receipt file, so I need to log in and do an "mget *" within the application to reliably get the receipt file. Unfortunately, the download parameter I would normally use won't take a wildcard. So, the meat of my question is, how do I launch a command line application and feed it a command once it starts up, via a shell script?

  • Answer:

    http://expect.nist.gov/ is great for this sort of thing. It even has a learn mode that lets you do some tasks then creates a script ( some editing required ). Google has lots of http://www.google.com/search?q=expect+ftp&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=

mkultra at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

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Yep. You want expect.

kindall

I agree, expect is best for general use. Your application sounds simple enough that you might get away with, something more lightweight like a "here-document" to supply the input. Using bash syntax you could write:ftp <<EOFcd /some/directorymget *EOFEverything from the first EOF to the second will be supplied as the standard input to the program "ftp"

gds

If you are a Perl person there is a nice http://search.cpan.org/~rgiersig/Expect-1.15/Expect.pod module available that will let your Perl script be the framework and do the text manipulation while making calls to Expect to send commands and retrieve their results.

harmfulray

Is use of the proprietary FTP application a requirement? If not, you could use Perl's http://search.cpan.org/~gbarr/libnet-1.19/Net/FTP.pm. I've used it to automate ftp transmissions on a number of machines.

bachelor#3

Is use of the proprietary FTP application a requirement? Yeah, I'm dealing with a bank. You wouldn't believe the hoops I have to jump through... Thanks, everyone. Expect seems to be exactly what I'm looking for. gds- EOF is a good thought, but it throws off the results of some of the parameters I have to throw at the app.

mkultra

The easiest way to automate ftp transfers is to use http://www.mavetju.org/unix/netrc.php.

Deepspace

Whoa. Banks are still using FTP? Um... which bank?

Caviar

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