Expect-5.41.0

The Expect package contains a program for doing scripted dialogues with other interactive programs.

Approximate build time:  0.1 SBU
Required disk space:     3.9 MB

Expect installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, Sed, Tcl.

Installation of Expect

First fix a bug that can result in bogus failures during the GCC test suite run:

patch -Np1 -i ../expect-5.41.0-spawn-1.patch

Now prepare Expect for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/tools --with-tcl=/tools/lib --with-x=no

The meaning of the configure options:

  • --with-tcl=/tools/lib: This ensures that the configure script finds the Tcl installation in our temporary tools location. We don't want it to find an existing one that may possibly reside on the host system.

  • --with-x=no: This tells the configure script not to search for Tk (the Tcl GUI component) or the X Window System libraries, both of which may possibly reside on the host system.

Build the package:

make

(If you insist on testing the results, then issue: make test. However, the Expect test suite is known to experience failures under certain host conditions that are not fully understood. Therefore, test suite failures here are not surprising, and are not considered critical.)

And install it:

make SCRIPTS="" install

The meaning of the make parameter:

  • SCRIPTS="": This prevents installation of the supplementary expect scripts which are not needed.

You can now remove the source directories of both Tcl and Expect.

Contents of Expect

Installed program: expect

Installed library: libexpect5.41.0.a

Short description

expecttalks” to other interactive programs according to a script.