Lispect

• A text-terminal automation tool similar to expect(1) of UNIX and Linux
• It runs on Windows 10 and later, and Linux
• The script is written in the subset of ISLisp (gmnlisp)

example.lsp

(block main
  (if (< (length args) 2)
    (progn
      (format (error-output) "Usage: ~A ~A HOSTNAME PASSWORD~%" $EXECUTABLE_NAME $PROGRAM_NAME)
      (return-from main nil)
      )
    )
  (defglobal host (car args))
  (defglobal password (cadr args))

  (spawn "ssh" host)
  (expect*
    ("[fingerprint])?"
     (sendln "yes")
     (expect "password: ")
     (sendln password)
     )
    ("password: "
     (sendln password)
     )
    ("Connection refused"
     (return-from main nil)
     )
    (30
     (format (error-output) "TIME OUT~%")
     (return-from main nil)
     )
    )
  (expect "$ ")
  (sendln "echo YOU CAN CALL SOME COMMAND HERE")
  (expect "$ ")
  (sendln "exit")
  )

Install

Download the binary package from Releases and extract the executable.

go install

go install github.com/hymkor/lispect@latest

scoop-installer

scoop install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hymkor/lispect/master/lispect.json

or

scoop bucket add hymkor https://github.com/hymkor/scoop-bucket
scoop install lispect

Functions and variables

Parameters enclosed in curly braces {...} are optional and can be omitted.

• (send {'interval MS} "STRING")
  • Send STRING to the terminal
  • Specify the 'interval MS option to make the program wait MS milliseconds before outputting each character
• (sendln {'interval MS} "STRING")
  • send STRING and Enter-key to the terminal
• (expect {'timeout SEC} "STRING-0" "STRING-1" ...)
  • Wait until STRINGs are found on the terminal
  • When STRING-n is found on the terminal, it will return n
  • If a timeout occurs after SEC seconds have elapsed, it returns -1
• (expect* ("STRING-0" COMMANDS-0...) ("STRING-1"...)... (SEC COMMANDS-FOR-TIMEOUT...))
  • When STRING-n is found on the terminal, COMMANDS-n will be executed
  • After SEC seconds have elapsed, COMMANDS-FOR-TIMEOUT will be executed
• (spawn "COMMANDNAME" "ARG-1" ...)
  • Start the executable file
• (getenv "NAME")
  • Get the value of the environment variable NAME
• (setenv "NAME" "VALUE")
  • Set the value of the environment variable NAME as VALUE
• args
  • The list of command line arguments
• $PROGRAM_NAME
  • The path of the script
• $EXECUTABLE_NAME
  • The path of the executable of lispect
• $MATCH
  • The matching string in the block of (expect*)

Other functions are defined on ISLisp

Comparison with Expect-lua and expect(1)

	Expect-lua	Lispect	expect(1)
Started	2017	2024	1990?
Script	Lua (GophaLua)	ISLisp (gmnlisp)	tcl
Windows 7/8	Supported	Not Supported	Not Supported
Windows 10/11	Supported	Supported	Not Supported
Linux	Not Supported	Supported	Supported
Mechanisms	ReadConsoleOutputW	PseudoConsole	PseudoConsole
Read Misses	Possible1	Unlikely	Never
Stdout Redirection	Unavailable	Available	Available
Status	Stable	Work in Progress	Stable

Technologies used

• Creating a Pseudoconsole session - Windows Console | Microsoft Learn
• aymanbagabas/go-pty: Cross platform Go Pty interface
• hymkor/gmnlisp: gmnlisp - the subset of ISLisp

---

1. When the output is too excessive, there might be some dropped data ↩︎