Exploring Expect

Dealing With Programs That Reprompt

As a matter of style, it is bad form to reissue a prompt upon a timeout. It is even worse to issue a different prompt. The problem is that the user may have been in the middle of entering a response. Users will wonder if their previous keystrokes have been discarded and should be re-entered (or changed). While terminal drivers usually offer a way to find out this information (typically by pressing ^R), an automated program such as an Expect script may not notice that a new prompt has been issued. If a new prompt is asking a different question than the script is answering, serious problems could result.

In the general sense, there is a race condition (unresolvable timing problem) raised by reprompting, and this can result in problems for humans as well as scripts. There are three strategies which I have outlined below. In each case, there is a gamble that can lose, described by the scenario following it. I will explain the steps in each scenario, italizicing the step at which things go awry.

1. The program does not discard its input buffer ever. This causes trouble if:

   The user begins to enter a response.

   The program decides the timeout has expired.

   The user presses return.

   The program prints a new prompt.

   The program reads the user’s old answer.

   The user is left with a new prompt.

   The user answers it.

   The program reads the old answer at the next prompt (and user again answers when program is not listening) or the program flushes the buffer as in scenario ...