Using the 'expect' utility to Automate Unix Shell Scripting Procedures

Category: Unix/Linux
Author: Sean O'Donnell
Thu, Feb. 20th, 2003 @ 2:20:22 (MST)

This Unix Shell Script Example Demonstrates how to easily automate the 'htpasswd' creation process.

htpasswd.sh (Example)

#!/usr/bin/expect
#########################################
#$ file: htpasswd.sh
#$ desc: Automated htpasswd shell script
#########################################
#$
#$ usage example:
#$
#$ ./htpasswd.sh passwdpath username userpass
#$
######################################

set htpasswdpath [lindex $argv 0]
set username [lindex $argv 1]
set userpass [lindex $argv 2]

# spawn the htpasswd command process
spawn htpasswd $htpasswdpath $username

# Automate the 'New password' Procedure
expect "New password:"
send "$userpass\r"

expect "Re-type new password:"
send "$userpass\r"

In order to execute the shell script correctly, we use the following command: (example)

$ ./htpasswd.sh /usr/local/apache/passwd/passwords myusername myuserpass 


You must include the following arguments when executing this script:

1. The 'htpasswdpath' (ie: /usr/local/apache/passwd/passwords)
   
2. The 'username' (ie: myusername)
   
3. The 'userpass' (ie: mypassword)

passwd.sh (Example)

This Unix Shell Script Example Demonstrates how to easily automate the 'passwd' creation process.

#!/usr/bin/expect
######################################
#$
#$  Automated 'passwd' Script
#$
######################################
#$
#$ usage example:
#$
#$ ./passwd.sh username password
#$
######################################

set username [lindex $argv 0]
set newpass [lindex $argv 1]

spawn passwd $username

#
# NOTE: this was developed for the slackware linux v9.0 passwd utility.
# you may need to slightly edit the expect statements depending on your operating system (red hat, suse, debian, etc).
#
expect "Changing password for $username"
expect "Enter the new password (minimum of 5, maximum of 127 characters)"
expect "Please use a combination of upper and lower case letters and numbers."
expect "New password:"

send "$newpass\r"

expect "Re-enter new password:"

send "$newpass\r"

In order to execute the shell script correctly, we use the following command (example):

$ ./passwd.sh myusername myuserpass 

You must include the following arguments when executing this script:

The 'username' (ie: myusername)
The 'userpass' (ie: mypassword)

useradd.sh (Example)

This Unix Shell Script Example Demonstrates how to easily automate the 'useradd' creation process.

It also combines a few other basic commands, as well as the 2 scripts above (htpasswd.sh and passwd.sh) in order to give a practical example of how to use this script for multiple command execution procedures.

# ************************************
#
#  CREATE THE USER ACCOUNT ON THE SERVER
#
#  '-m' INITIATES THE CREATION OF THE USER'S HOME DIRECTORY 
#  USING THE '/etc/skel' DEFAULT SKELETON DIRECTORY
#
# ************************************

useradd -m $1

# ************************************
#
#  CREATE THE USER'S PASSWD
#
# ************************************

echo "starting passwd creation procedure...\r"
./passwd.sh $1 $2

# ************************************
#
#  CREATE THE USER'S HTPASSWD
#
# ************************************

echo "starting htpasswd creation procedure...\r"
./htpasswd.sh /usr/local/apache/passwd/passwords $1 $2

# ************************************
#
# CREATE A SYMBOLIC LINK TO THE USER'S WEBSITE ROOT DIRECTORY (for example purposes)
# ie: /home/[username]/public_html
#
# ************************************

ln -s /home/$1/public_html /home/$1/www

# chown the symbolic link (just in case)
chown $1:users /home/$1/www

echo ""
echo "************************************"
echo ""
echo " The User ($1) has been successfully added to $HOSTNAME"
echo ""
echo "************************************"
echo ""

(note: this is just an example, you can customize this to your own needs)

In order to execute the shell script correctly, we use the following command (example):

$ ./useradd.sh myusername myuserpass

You must include the following arguments when executing this script:

The 'username' (ie: myusername)
The 'userpass' (ie: mypassword)

If the script is configured and executed properly, a User with the name 'myusername' will be created, with the password 'myuserpass'.

That same password will be applied to the htpasswd list (for secure web directories, example), and a user-friendly symbolic link '/home/myusername/www/' will be made to the website root directory '/home/myusername/public_html/'.

This is just a practical example of how to automate unix shell scripting commands by using expect.