Re: Expect.pm passing $exp to subroutine ** line number correction

Noah wrote:
> Hi,

Hello,

> thank you again list members for the quick response to my last question.
> 
> I am using the I am trying to figure out to pass my $exp to the
> subroutine "grabConfig".  $exp is the variable of my expect object.
> line 167 is "$patidx = $exp->expect($timeout, [$prompt]); "
> 
> 
> here is the error message:
> 
> "                   Please Enter Selection: > Can't call method "expect"
> on an undefined value at ./get.config.pl line 167."
> 
> here are snippets from my code:
> 
> ---- snip ---
> 
>                     # send element number
>                     while ($elementCount < $elementUpperLimit) {
> 
>                         $prompt = "$blah";
>                         $exp->send("$elementCount");

perldoc -q "What.s wrong with always quoting ..vars.?"

                           $prompt = $blah;
                           $exp->send( $elementCount );

>                         &grabConfig;

                           grabConfig();

perldoc perlsub

>                         $elementCount++;
>                     }
> 
> 
> sub grabConfig {
>     $prompt = "^$user\@[a-z\.0-9\-]+>";

       my $prompt = qr/^$user\@[a-z.0-9-]+>/;

>     $patidx = $exp->expect($timeout, [$prompt]);  <<<<<< line 169

According to the documentation:

<QUOTE>
$object->expect($timeout, @match_patterns)
</QUOTE>

The second argument to expect() should not be an array reference.

http://search.cpan.org/~rgiersig/Expect-1.21/Expect.pod

>     $read = $exp->before();
> 
>     #get hostname
>     $read =~ /^@([^>]+)>\s/;
>     $hostname = $1;

You should not use the numerical variables unless the match was successful:

       $read =~ /^@([^>]+)>\s/ and $hostname = $1;

Or:

       ( $hostname ) = $read =~ /^@([^>]+)>\s/;

>     $hostname = tr/[a-z]/[A-Z]/;

Why are you translating '[' to '[' and ']' to ']'?

       $hostname = tr/a-z/A-Z/;

Or:

       $read =~ /^@([^>]+)>\s/ and $hostname = uc $1;

>     $outputFilename = "$hostname.config.txt";
> 
>     #delete saved configuraiton file
>     unlink ($outputFilename);

You should verify that unlink worked correctly:

       unlink $outputFilename or warn "Cannot unlink '$outputFilename' $!";

But you don't really need to unlink the file as you are opening it 
read-only which will remove the previous contents upon opening.

>     # open new configuration file
>     open (OUTPUT, ">$outputFilename");

You should *always* verify that the file opened correctly:

       open OUTPUT, '>', $outputFilename or die "Cannot open 
'$outputFilename' $!";



John
-- 
Perl isn't a toolbox, but a small machine shop where you
can special-order certain sorts of tools at low cost and
in short order.                            -- Larry Wall