Automated logins and file transfers from a KSh script ?

[Leslie Mikesell]

In article <228 at nos850.UUCP> joem at nos850.UUCP (Joe Muller) writes:
>
>
>  I am attempting to write a Korn Shell script for a cron that would automate 
>the kermiting of files from a VAX/VMS system to an HP UX system.  So far I
>have had very limited success; it can cu to our modem (/dev/ttyAp5), and
>after removing the LCK file, it echoes commands to the modem.  So far I have 
>been able to get it to successfuly dial out from a script, but what I have been
>having problems with is getting it to wait for a proper response before
>echoing the next command to the modem.  I have tried cu'ing to the modem with
>this command:
>             cu -l/dev/ttyAp5 -s2400 | tee -a log
>
>and then taking the response from the other machine as being the last line in
>the file 'log.' However, I am having difficulties in getting this to work
>correctly.  What I would like to do is write an 'expect' command that
>would have the script wait for a proper response from a command echoed to
>the device.  I could always just have the script sleep inbetween commands, but
>this assumes that the connection has already been made.  If anybody has
>done something similiar to this, or can offer any advice or suggestions,
>please post them here.

If you have a recent version of kermit, it should have a "script" command
and be capable of initiating the connection all by itself without
any help from cu.  It can also do shell escapes from within its command
mode so you can transfer a file in and then let a shell script parse
the filename and generate your next action by writing a temp file of
kermit commands which the top-level script executes via the "take" command.
Oddly, there isn't a command line option to tell kermit to run
non-interactively from a command file, so you have to redirect stdin
for the main script which can just be a stack of "take" commands to
do each operation.  If it's just a straightforward file transfer the
script can be pretty simple.  I've been moving files between a unix box
and an IBM running VM/CMS this way for several years, using a simple
naming convention to decide what to do after the transfer.  It's ugly
but the price was right and it pretty much takes care of itself.

Les Mikesell
  les at chinet.chi.il.us