1RUNSCRIPT(1) General Commands Manual RUNSCRIPT(1)
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6 runscript - script interpreter for minicom
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9 runscript scriptname [logfile [homedir]]
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12 runscript is a simple script interpreter that can be called from within
13 the minicom communications program to automate tasks like logging in to
14 a Unix system or your favorite BBS.
15
17 The program expects a script name and optionally a filename and the
18 user's home directory as arguments, and it expects that it's input and
19 output are connected to the "remote end", the system you are connecting
20 to. All messages from runscript meant for the local screen are directed
21 to the stderr output. All this is automatically taken care of if you
22 run it from minicom. The logfile and home directory parameters are
23 only used to tell the log command the name of the logfile and where to
24 write it. If the homedir is omitted, runscript uses the directory found
25 in the $HOME environment variable. If also the logfile name is omitted,
26 the log commands are ignored.
27
29 Runscript recognizes the following commands:
30 expect send goto gosub return !< !
32 exit print set inc dec if timeout
33 verbose sleep break call log
34
37 send <string>
38 <string> is sent to the modem. It is followed by a '\r'. <string>
39 can be:
40 - regular text, e.g. 'send hello'
41 - text enclosed in quotes, e.g. 'send "hello world"'
42 Within <string> the following sequences are recognized:
44 \n - newline
45 \r - carriage return
46 \a - bell
47 \b - backspace
48 \c - don't send the default '\r'.
49 \f - formfeed
50 \^ - the ^ character
51 \o - send character o (o is an octal number)
52 Control characters can be used in the string with the ^ prefix (^A
54 to ^Z, ^[, ^ ^], ^^ and ^_). If you need to send the ^ character,
55 you must prefix it with the \ escape character.
56 Octal characters are either four-digit or delimited by a non-digit
57 character, e.g. the null character may be sent with \0000 and
58 'send 1234' is equivalent to 'send \0061234'.
59 Also $(environment_variable) can be used, for example $(TERM).
60 Minicom passes three special environment variables: $(LOGIN),
61 which is the username, $(PASS), which is the password, as defined
62 in the proper entry of the dialing directory, and $(TERMLIN) which
63 is the number of actual terminal lines on your screen (that is,
64 the statusline excluded).
65 print <string>
67 Prints <string> to the local screen. Default followed by '\r\n'.
68 See the description of 'send' above.
69 label:
71 Declares a label (with the name 'label') to use with goto or go‐
72 sub.
73 goto <label>
75 Jump to another place in the program.
76 gosub <label>
78 Jumps to another place in the program. When the statement 'return'
79 is encountered, control returns to the statement after the gosub.
80 Gosub's can be nested.
81 return
83 Return from a gosub.
84 ! <command>
86 Runs a shell for you in which 'command' is executed. On return,
87 the variable '$?' is set to the exit status of this command, so
88 you can subsequently test it using 'if'.
89 !< <command>
91 Runs a shell for you in which 'command' is executed. The stdout
92 output of the command execution will be sent to the modem. On re‐
93 turn, the variable '$?' is set to the exit status of this command,
94 so you can subsequently test it using 'if'.
95 exit [value]
97 Exit from "runscript" with an optional exit status. (default 1)
98 set <variable> <value>
100 Sets the value of <variable> (which is a single letter a-z) to the
101 value <value>. If <variable> does not exist, it will be created.
102 <value> can be a integer value or another variable.
103 inc <variable>
105 Increments the value of <variable> by one.
106 dec <variable>
108 Decrements the value of <variable> by one.
109 if <value> <operator> <value> <statement>
111 Conditional execution of <statement>. <operator> can be <, >, !=
112 or =. Eg, 'if a > 3 goto exitlabel'.
113 timeout <value>
115 Sets the global timeout. By default, 'runscript' will exit after
116 120 seconds. This can be changed with this command. Warning: this
117 command acts differently within an 'expect' statement, but more
118 about that later.
119 verbose <on|off>
121 By default, this is 'on'. That means that anything that is being
122 read from the modem by 'runscript', gets echoed to the screen.
123 This is so that you can see what 'runscript' is doing.
124 sleep <value>
126 Suspend execution for <value> seconds.
127 expect
129 expect {
130 pattern [statement]
131 pattern [statement]
132 [timeout <value> [statement] ]
133 ....
134 }
135 The most important command of all. Expect keeps reading from the
136 input until it reads a pattern that matches one of the specified
137 ones. If expect encounters an optional statement after that pat‐
138 tern, it will execute it. Otherwise the default is to just break
139 out of the expect. 'pattern' is a string, just as in 'send' (see
140 above). Normally, expect will timeout in 60 seconds and just
141 exit, but this can be changed with the timeout command.
142 break
144 Break out of an 'expect' statement. This is normally only useful
145 as argument to 'timeout' within an expect, because the default ac‐
146 tion of timeout is to exit immediately.
147 call <scriptname>
149 Transfers control to another script file. When that script file
150 finishes without errors, the original script will continue.
151 log <text>
153 Write text to the logfile.
154
156 If you want to make your script to exit minicom (for example when you
157 use minicom to dial up your ISP, and then start a PPP or SLIP session
158 from a script), try the command "! killall -9 minicom" as the last
159 script command. The -9 option should prevent minicom from hanging up
160 the line and resetting the modem before exiting.
161 Well, I don't think this is enough information to make you an experi‐
162 enced 'programmer' in 'runscript', but together with the examples it
163 shouldn't be too hard to write some useful script files. Things will be
164 easier if you have experience with BASIC. The minicom source code
165 comes together with two example scripts, scriptdemo and unixlogin. Es‐
166 pecially the last one is a good base to build on for your own scripts.
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169 minicom(1)
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172 Runscript should be built in to minicom.
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175 Miquel van Smoorenburg, <miquels@drinkel.ow.org> Jukka Lahtinen,
176 <walker@netsonic.fi>
177User's Manual $Date: 2007-10-07 18:13:51 $ RUNSCRIPT(1)