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texpect

Automate interactive sessions using Twisted.

##Description TExpect attempts to provide an interface, similar to telnetlib.Telnet from python standard library, which is, in turn inspired by expect (I think). Since most of the time during the interactive session is waiting for desired data, Twisted really does shine here with its asynchronous I/O.

An interactive session is represented by an instance of a Expect-derived class. When a request is made to the session, a Deferred is returned, which is then fired with the result of the request. In case of a failed request, an error is returned via an errback.

This way one does not have to block while waiting for the result of the request or for the timeout.

Ready-to-use implementations using twisted.conch.telnet.Telnet and twisted.internet.protocol.ProcessProtocol are provided.

##Example

from twisted.internet import reactor
from twisted.internet.protocol import ClientCreator
from texpect.protocols import TelnetExpect
import sys

host = "en.wikipedia.org"
port = 80

cc = ClientCreator(reactor, TelnetExpect)
c = cc.connectTCP(host, port)
def do_interact(inst):
    d = inst.write("HEAD /wiki/Main_Page HTTP/1.1\r\n"
                   "Host: en.wikipedia.org\r\n\r\n")
    d.addCallback(lambda ign: inst.read_all())
    d.addCallback(sys.stdout.write)
c.addCallback(do_interact)

reactor.run()

Obviously, this is not the optimal use case, as this is better done using, for example, t.w.http.HTTPClient, but still it shows the basic usage of the API.

##Documentation The API is fully documented using epydoc. You can generate the documentation from the source using something along the lines of epydoc -o doc --html texpect.

##Tests A test suite is included (texpect.test module).

##Future There are some features, that I'd certainly like to see implemented.
In order of importance:

  • Support read_some request.
  • Support ssh out of the box.
  • Support direct interaction using manhole.