Automate interactive console applications such as ssh, ftp, etc.
Pexpect is similar to the Don Libes "Expect" system, but Pexpect as a different interface that is easier to understand. Pexpect is basically a pattern matching system. It runs programs and watches output. When output matches a given pattern Pexpect can respond as if a human were typing responses. Pexpect can be used for automation, testing, and screen scraping. Pexpect can be used for automating interactive console applications such as ssh, ftp, passwd, telnet, etc. It can also be used to control web applications via "lynx", "w3m", or some other text-based web browser. Pexpect is pure Python. Unlike other Expect-like modules for Python Pexpect does not require TCL or Expect nor does it require C extensions to be compiled. It should work on any platform that supports the standard Python pty module.