Simulate user input in bash script

bash input emulation user-input
Werulz picture Werulz · Feb 3, 2013 · Viewed 105.1k times · Source

I am creating my own bash script, but I am stuck at the moment. Basically, the script would be used to automate server setup in CentOS. Some software normally asks the user to type a password. I want the script to put the password that I have generated and stored as a variable instead of asking the user.

When the message "New password:" appears during install, how can I make the script put the value stored in a variable $key as if the user had typed it, with a bash script?

Answer

FreudianSlip picture FreudianSlip · Feb 3, 2013

You should find the 'expect' command will do what you need it to do. Its widely available. See here for an example : http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/10/expect-examples/

(very rough example)

#!/usr/bin/expect
set pass "mysecret"

spawn /usr/bin/passwd

expect "password: "
send "$pass"
expect "password: "
send "$pass"

Related questions

shell script respond to keypress

I have a shell script that essentially says something like while true; do read -r input if ["$input" = "a"]; then echo "hello world" fi done That is all well, and good, but I just realized having to hit ENTER presents …

Read More
In bash, how does one clear the current input?

Suppose in bash you start writing a command like: $ rm -rf /foo/bar/really/long/path/here and then realize you don't want to execute this after all. Is there a way to clear the input with one or two …

Read More
Can I pass a string variable to jq not the file?

I want to convert JSON string into an array in bash. The JSON string is passed to the bash script as an argument (it doesn't exist in a file). Is there a way of achieving it without using some temp …

Read More