Documentation

expect - Executes a command and responds to prompts.

New in version 2.0.

Synopsis

  • The expect module executes a command and responds to prompts.
  • The given command will be executed on all selected nodes. It will not be processed through the shell, so variables like $HOME and operations like "<", ">", "|", and "&" will not work.

Requirements (on host that executes module)

  • python >= 2.6
  • pexpect >= 3.3

Options

parameter required default choices comments
chdir
 no
Change into this directory before running the command.
command
 yes
The command module takes command to run.
creates
 no
A filename, when it already exists, this step will not be run.
echo
 no
Whether or not to echo out your response strings.
removes
 no
A filename, when it does not exist, this step will not be run.
responses
 yes
Mapping of expected string/regex and string to respond with. If the response is a list, successive matches return successive responses. List functionality is new in 2.1.
timeout
 no 30
Amount of time in seconds to wait for the expected strings.

Examples

- name: Case insensitve password string match
  expect:
    command: passwd username
    responses:
      (?i)password: "MySekretPa$$word"

- name: Generic question with multiple different responses
  expect:
    command: /path/to/custom/command
    responses:
      Question:
        - response1
        - response2
        - response3

Notes

Note

  • If you want to run a command through the shell (say you are using <, >, |, etc), you must specify a shell in the command such as /bin/bash -c "/path/to/something | grep else".
  • The question, or key, under responses is a python regex match. Case insensitive searches are indicated with a prefix of ?i.
  • By default, if a question is encountered multiple times, its string response will be repeated. If you need different responses for successive question matches, instead of a string response, use a list of strings as the response. The list functionality is new in 2.1.
  • The expect module is designed for simple scenarios. For more complex needs, consider the use of expect code with the shell or script modules. (An example is part of the shell module documentation)

Status

This module is flagged as preview which means that it is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface.

For help in developing on modules, should you be so inclined, please read Community Information & Contributing, Testing Ansible and Developing Modules.