Dear fellow Perl afficionados,

I have run into a bit of a puzzler, wondered if anyone might have anywhere
to point me on this one:

I want my Perl script to INTERACT multiple times with another process, in
this case an Expect script.   

Allow me to explain: Typically, I have written scripts where the Perl script
calls the Expect script with

system (/dir/expect-script arguments-to-pass-to-expect-script);

This is a ONE way, ONE-time conversation, as opposed to an interaction.  The
Perl script talks to the Expect script only ONCE in the line above, passing
the arguments to the  Expect script and executing the Expect script using
the "system" call.   After that one-way conversation (Perl>Expect), nothing
happens until the Expect script finishes, then Perl continues on, never
talking to that process again.

 In a new script I am creating, the Perl script needs to talk with the
Expect script more than once, in fact, a conversation needs to be carried
out between the scripts (I guess that would be called a conversation between
processes).   Unlike my original script above, the new Perl script will not
just start the process (Expect script) and wait until it's done, but rather
get info from it, parse that info, select a certain piece X from it,  and
send X back so the Expect script can continue, and so forth, until the
Expect script is done, and THEN Perl will continue on as normal.

I thought about using the sleep function in Perl, since Expect also has it,
and have each process (script) sleep for a second or two while the other one
processes the info it has to pass back to the other script, however that
sounds like a clusterflub  of sleeps with an accident waiting to happen.
There must be an easier way.  

Since I am really a Perl programmer, I am really trying to avoid making all
the parsing in the Expect script.   I don't even know if Expect can parse as
well, and as easily, as Perl, and I'd rather avoid that whole ball of wax.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?    Thank you so much in advance
for sharing a bit of your expertise, and have a great weekend!

Paul Jasa

 

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