Use Expect in a Bash script to provide a password to an SSH command

Question

I\'m trying to use Expect in a Bash script to provide the SSH password. Providing the password works, but I don\'t end up in the SSH session as I should. It goes back strait

Answer 1

Add the 'interact' Expect command just before your EOD:

#!/bin/bash

read -s PWD

/usr/bin/expect <<EOD
spawn ssh -oStrictHostKeyChecking=no -oCheckHostIP=no usr@$myhost.example.com
expect "password"
send "$PWD\n"
interact
EOD
echo "you're out"

This should let you interact with the remote machine until you log out. Then you'll be back in Bash.

Answer 2

After looking for an answer for the question for months, I finally find a really best solution: writing a simple script.

#!/usr/bin/expect

set timeout 20

set cmd [lrange $argv 1 end]
set password [lindex $argv 0]

eval spawn $cmd
expect "Password:"
send "$password\r";
interact

Put it to /usr/bin/exp, then you can use:

• exp <password> ssh <anything>
• exp <password> scp <anysrc> <anydst>

Done!

Answer 3

Also make sure to use

send -- "$PWD\r"

instead, as passwords starting with a dash (-) will fail otherwise.

The above won't interpret a string starting with a dash as an option to the send command.