.\" This file Copyright 1992,93,94 Miquel van Smoorenburg

.\" 1998-2002 Jukka Lahtinen

.\" It may be distributed under the GNU Public License, version 2, or

.\" any higher version.  See section COPYING of the GNU Public license

.\" for conditions under which this file may be redistributed.

.TH RUNSCRIPT 1 "$Date: 2007-10-07 18:13:51 $" "User's Manual"

.SH NAME

runscript \- script interpreter for minicom

.SH SYNOPSIS

.B runscript

.RI "scriptname [logfile [homedir]]"

.SH DESCRIPTION

.B runscript

is a simple script interpreter that can be called from within the minicom

communications program to automate tasks like logging in to a Unix system

or your favorite BBS.

.SH INVOCATION

The program expects a script name and optionally a filename and the

user's home directory as arguments, and it expects that it's input and

output are connected to the \^"remote end\^", the system you are

connecting to. All messages from \fBrunscript\fP meant for the local screen

are directed to the \fBstderr\fP output. All this is automatically taken

care of if you run it from \fBminicom\fP.

The logfile and home directory parameters are only used to tell the log

command the name of the logfile and where to write it. If the homedir is

omitted, runscript uses the directory found in the $HOME environment

variable. If also the logfile name is omitted, the log commands are ignored.

.SH KEYWORDS

.TP 0.5i

Runscript recognizes the following commands:

.br

.RS

.nf

expect   send     goto     gosub    return   \^!<   \^!

exit     print    set      inc      dec      if   timeout

verbose  sleep    break    call     log

.fi

.RE

.SH "OVERVIEW OF KEYWORDS"

.TP 0.5i

.B "send <string>"

<string> is sent to the modem. It is followed by a '\\r'.

<string> can be:

  - regular text, e.g. 'send hello'

  - text enclosed in quotes, e.g. 'send \^"hello world\^"'

.TP 0.5i

     Within <string> the following sequences are recognized:

    \\n - newline

    \\r - carriage return

    \\a - bell

    \\b - backspace

    \\c - don't send the default '\\r'.

    \\f - formfeed

    \\^ - the ^ character

    \\o - send character \fBo\fP (\fBo\fP is an octal number)

.br

Control characters can be used in the string with the ^ prefix

(^A to ^Z, ^[, ^\, ^], ^^ and ^_). If you need to send the ^ character,

you must prefix it with the \\ escape character.

.br

Octal characters are either four-digit or delemited by a non-digit

character, e.g. the null character may be sent with \\0000 and 'send

1234' is equivalent to 'send \\0061234'.

.br

Also $(environment_variable) can be used, for example $(TERM).

Minicom passes three special environment variables: $(LOGIN),

which is the username, $(PASS), which is the password, as

defined in the proper entry of the dialing directory, and

$(TERMLIN) which is the number of actual terminal lines on your

screen (that is, the statusline excluded).

.TP 0.5i

.B "print <string>"

Prints <string> to the local screen. Default followed by '\\r\\n'.

See the description of 'send' above.

.TP 0.5i

.B "label:"

Declares a label (with the name 'label') to use with

goto or gosub.

.TP 0.5i

.B "goto <label>"

Jump to another place in the program.

.TP 0.5i

.B "gosub <label>"

Jumps to another place in the program. When the statement 'return'

is encountered, control returns to the statement after the gosub.

Gosub's can be nested.

.TP 0.5i

.BR "return"

Return from a gosub.

.TP 0.5i

.BR "! <command>"

Runs a shell for you in which 'command' is executed. On return,

the variable '$?' is set to the exit status of this command,

so you can subsequently test it using 'if'.

.TP 0.5i

.BR "!< <command>"

Runs a shell for you in which 'command' is executed. The stdout

output of the command execution will be sent to the modem. On

return, the variable '$?' is set to the exit status of this

command, so you can subsequently test it using 'if'.

.TP 0.5i

.B "exit [value]"

Exit from \^"runscript\^" with an optional exit status. (default 1)

.TP 0.5i

.B "set <variable> <value>"

Sets the value of <variable> (which is a single letter a-z) to the

value <value>. If <variable> does not exist, it will be created.

<value> can be a integer value or another variable.

.TP 0.5i

.B "inc <variable>"

Increments the value of <variable> by one.

.TP 0.5i

.B "dec <variable>"

Decrements the value of <variable> by one.

.TP 0.5i

.B "if <value> <operator> <value> <statement>"

Conditional execution of <statement>. <operator> can be <, >, != or =.

Eg, 'if a > 3 goto exitlabel'.

.TP 0.5i

.B "timeout <value>"

Sets the global timeout. By default, 'runscript' will exit after

120 seconds. This can be changed with this command. Warning: this

command acts differently within an 'expect' statement, but more

about that later.

.TP 0.5i

.B "verbose <on|off>"

By default, this is 'on'. That means that anything that is being

read from the modem by 'runscript', gets echoed to the screen.

This is so that you can see what 'runscript' is doing.

.TP 0.5i

.B "sleep <value>"

Suspend execution for <value> seconds.

.TP 0.5i

.B "expect"

.nf

  expect {

    pattern  [statement]

    pattern  [statement]

    [timeout <value> [statement] ]

    ....

  }

.fi

The most important command of all. Expect keeps reading from the

input until it reads a pattern that matches one of the

specified ones.  If expect encounters an optional statement

after that pattern, it will execute it. Otherwise the default is

to just break out of the expect. 'pattern' is a string, just as

in 'send' (see above).  Normally, expect will timeout in 60

seconds and just exit, but this can be changed with the timeout

command.

.TP 0.5i

.B "break"

Break out of an 'expect' statement. This is normally only useful

as argument to 'timeout' within an expect, because the default

action of timeout is to exit immediately.

.TP 0.5i

.B "call <scriptname>"

Transfers control to another scriptfile. When that scriptfile

finishes without errors, the original script will continue.

.TP 0.5i

.B "log <text>"

Write text to the logfile.

.SH NOTES

If you want to make your script to exit minicom (for example when

you use minicom to dial up your ISP, and then start a PPP or SLIP

session from a script), try the command "! killall \-9 minicom" as

the last script command. The \-9 option should prevent minicom from

hanging up the line and resetting the modem before exiting.

.br

.br

Well, I don't think this is enough information to make you an

experienced 'programmer' in 'runscript', but together with the

examples it shouldn't be too hard to write some useful script

files. Things will be easier if you have experience with BASIC.

The \fBminicom\fP source code comes together with two example

scripts, \fBscriptdemo\fP and \fBunixlogin\fP. Especially the

last one is a good base to build on for your own scripts.

.SH SEE ALSO

.BR minicom (1)

.SH BUGS

Runscript should be built in to minicom.

.SH AUTHOR

Miquel van Smoorenburg, <miquels@drinkel.ow.org>

Jukka Lahtinen, <walker@netsonic.fi>