Problem with zombie process & expect

[Peter Rendle]

I have a problem with a simple expect driven FTP process. Two or
three times now the script has stopped (forever) for no reason.

The script appears to have completed but the FTP process is listed as
<defunct> in the process list and the script simply hangs.

My knowledge of expect/tcl is somewhat limited but I have looked in
Exploring Expect which mentions things about wait --nowait. Is this
what I am looking for?

Thanks in Advance

Peter

Script Follows:

set exp_log "$env(EXP_LOG)"
set exp_remote_host "$env(EXP_REMOTE_HOST)"
set exp_file_list "$env(EXP_FILE_LIST)"
set exp_username "$env(EXP_USERNAME)"
set exp_userpass "$env(EXP_USERPASS)"
set exp_remotedir "$env(EXP_REMOTEDIR)"
set nowtime [timestamp -format %c]

log_file $exp_log
send_log "Logfile opened at: \$nowtime\n"
set timeout 60

spawn ftp $exp_remote_host
expect {
timeout {send_log "Timeout (spawn ftp)\n" ; exit 1}
"nknown" {send_log "Unknown Host\n" ; exit 1}
"Name*:" {}
}

send "$exp_username\r"
expect {
timeout{send_log "Timeout (pwd prompt)\n" ; exit 1}
"assword:"{}
}

send "$exp_userpass\r"
expect {
timeout {send_log "Timeout (logging in)\n" ; exit 1}
"530*>" {send_log "Login Failed\n" ; send "quit\r" ;
exit 1}
"ftp>" {}
}

send "cd $exp_remotedir\r"
expect {
timeout {send_log "Timeout (cd remotedir)\n" ; exit 1}
"501*>" {send_log "CD Failed\n" ; send "quit\r" ; exit
1}
"250*>" {}
}

send_log "Logged in and Ready\n"

set out [open $exp_file_list w]
send "dir\r"
expect {
timeout {send_log "Timeout (dir)\n" ; close $out ;
exit 1}
-re "^ftp>" {puts $out "Complete" ; close $out}
-re "^.*\r\n" {puts $out $expect_out(0,string) ;
exp_continue}
}

send "quit\r"
expect {
timeout {send_log "Timeout (logging out)\n" ; exit 1}
"221" {}
}

[D. J. Hagberg]

Peter Rendle (peter....@ec-ltd.com) wrote:
: I have a problem with a simple expect driven FTP process. Two or

: three times now the script has stopped (forever) for no reason.

: The script appears to have completed but the FTP process is listed as
: <defunct> in the process list and the script simply hangs.

After an exp_close, you need to do an exp_wait to reap <defunct>
processes. This is necessary whenever a child process is killed.
I believe it's covered in Libes' Exploring Expect. The related
Unix system call, wait(), is covered in Stevens' "Advanced Programming
in the Unix Environment".

-=- D. J.
-=- dhag...@glatmos.com