Program reading input from terminal (I need to read from file or standard in)

[Carey Goad]

I have a program (that a vendor wrote) which reads input from the terminal. I want to automate this job; which means reading input from a file or standard in. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get this program to redirect where it wants its input from.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Carey Goad
carey.goad@dobson.net

[Rick Garland]

If doing from a user standpoint:
if [ some condition ]
then
echo "Enter filename"
read filename
else
filename=$1
fi

Read can get input from a file or pipe used as standard input:
shellcommand < file
or
command|shellcommand
while read inputline
do
process inputline
done

[Kofi ARTHIABAH]

have you tried the "here" construct:

cat - << EOINPUT | your_vendors_program
what the terminal would have input
somemore
EOINPUT

[Carey Goad]

I appreciate both of the above response; but, unfortunately neither worked. I had tried the < and << command. I did try the cat - << EOINPUT | program uncessfully.

Thanks for the ideas

[Victor BERRIDGE]

Hi,
Just thoughts...
What about if your vendors program was based on reading specificaly terminal input, why not try to output your file to the terminal like cat >/dev/ttyXX?
Yours Victor

[curt larson]

#!/usr/bin/ksh

your_vendor_program |&

while read -p line
do
case $line in
"this is something I'll reply to") print -p "my respondance";;
*) continue;;
esac
done

be sure the lines you respond to are somewhat unique. At least to the point that you want to give the same answer every time.

[Carlos Fernandez Riera]

If redirection of standard input dont run:
process < file

then your program must be open your tty, so you can try try:
tty= `tty`
(sleep 1; cat file > $tty ) & process

Im not sure of syntax. The idea is feed tty whith your file.

Other:
Use glance -> proces list-> open files to see what files opens you process.

[John Palmer]

Carey,

It sounds as though your application insists on talking to the terminal - as does the passwd command.

It may be worth your while checking out 'expect' which with its dependencies tcl-8.2.1 and tk can be downloaded from your friendly neighbourhood HP Porting Centre.

Ours is http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/

Quote from the porting centre:-

Expect 5.31
Allows programmed dialogue with interactive programs. Makes use of a scripting language. Can be used to automate tasks that require certain interactive responses. Requires Tcl 8.0p2, which is available in this category and can also use tk 8.0p2.

Regards,

John