how to use expect into bash to automate installation

Question

I have a bash that answers the questions that freefilesync asks during installation, using expect:

#!/bin/bash
tar -xf FreeFileSync*.tar.gz
mv FreeFileSync*.run FreeFileSync.run >/dev/null 2>&1
chmod +x FreeFileSync.run

/usr/bin/expect << EOF
set timeout -1
log_user 0
spawn ./FreeFileSync.run --accept-license
log_user 1
expect -exact "\r
ENTER to begin installation: "
send -- "y\r"
expect -exact "https://freefilesync.org/donate\r
\r"
EOF

It used to work for me. Now I don't know what's wrong. script stops at:

ENTER to begin installation:

I have modified the following lines without getting the expected results:

expect -exact "\r
ENTER to begin installation: "
send "\r"

or

expect -exact "\r
ENTER to begin installation: "
send -- "\r"

debugging (with /usr/bin/expect -d):

expect: does "\u001bc" (spawn_id exp4) match exact string "\r\nENTER to begin installation: "? no

FreeFileSync 11.18 Setup


expect: does "\u001bc\r\n\u001b[32m\u001b[7mFreeFileSync 11.18 Setup\u001b[0m\r\n\r\n" (spawn_id exp4) match exact string "\r\nENTER to begin installation: "? no
 1. Install for all users:    YES (requires root password)
 2. Installation directory:   /opt/FreeFileSync
 3. Create desktop shortcuts: NO
_____________________________
Press a number [1-3] to change settings,
ENTER to begin installation: 
expect: does "\u001bc\r\n\u001b[32m\u001b[7mFreeFileSync 11.18 Setup\u001b[0m\r\n\r\n 1. Install for all users:    \u001b[1mYES (requires root password)\u001b[0m\r\n 2. Installation directory:   \u001b[1m/opt/FreeFileSync\u001b[0m\r\n 3. Create desktop shortcuts: \u001b[1mNO\u001b[0m\r\n_____________________________\r\nPress a number [\u001b[1m1-3\u001b[0m] to change settings,\r\n\u001b[1mENTER\u001b[0m to begin installation: " (spawn_id exp4) match exact string "\r\nENTER to begin installation: "? no

The questions that the script must answer are:

Accept the FreeFileSync license terms? [y]es, [n]o, or [s]how: [y/n/s] 

FreeFileSync 11.18 Setup

 1. Install for all users:    YES (requires root password)
 2. Installation directory:   /opt/FreeFileSync
 3. Create desktop shortcuts: NO
_____________________________
Press a number [1-3] to change settings,
ENTER to begin installation: 

-> Removing old installation: /opt/FreeFileSync
-> Installing to: /opt/FreeFileSync
-> New console command: freefilesync
-> Registering file extensions: *.ffs_gui, *.ffs_batch, *.ffs_real

All done!
                __
   ,           ," ^`--o
  ((          (  | __,'
   \\~-------' \_;/
   (             /
   /) .______.  )
  (( (      (( (
   ``-'      ``-'

Get the Donation Edition with bonus features and help keep FreeFileSync ad-free.
https://freefilesync.org/donate

what should I fix in EOF?. Thanks

Answer 1

According to your debug log, expect cannot find a match for \r\nENTER to begin installation: as it seems that the string you are searching in (\r\n\u001b[1mENTER\u001b[0m to begin installation: ) contains bold text (\u001b[1m \u001b[0m).

I had problems with matching the bold text, supposedly because of the square brackets.

As there is no other occurrence of to begin installation: , that should be enough of a match:

What worked in my tests, was the following modification:

#!/bin/bash
tar -xf FreeFileSync*.tar.gz
mv FreeFileSync*.run FreeFileSync.run >/dev/null 2>&1
chmod +x FreeFileSync.run

/usr/bin/expect << EOF
set timeout -1
log_user 0
spawn ./FreeFileSync.run --accept-license
log_user 1
expect -exact "to begin installation:"
send -- "y\r"
expect -exact "https://freefilesync.org/donate\r
\r"
EOF

Note that I've only tested with the output you've provided, not with the actual installation script.