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chat(8) System Manager's Manual chat(8) NAME chat - Automated conversational script with a modem SYNOPSIS /usr/sbin/chat [options] script DESCRIPTION The chat program defines a conversational exchange between the computer and the modem. Its primary purpose is to establish the connection be- tween the Point-to-Point Protocol Daemon (pppd) and the remote's pppd process. OPTIONS Reads the chat script from the chatfile. The use of this option is mu- tually exclusive with the chat script parameters. The user must have read access to the file. Multiple lines are permitted in the file. Space or horizontal tab characters should be used to separate the strings. Sets the timeout for the expected string to be received. If the string is not received within the time limit, the reply string is not sent. An alternate reply may be sent or the script will fail if there is no alternate reply string. A failed script will cause the chat program to terminate with a non-zero error code. Requests that the chat script be executed in a verbose mode. The chat program logs all text received from the modem and the output strings that it sends to the syslog. If the script is not specified in a file with the -f option then the script is included as parameters to the chat program. CHAT SCRIPT The chat script defines the communications between the local system and a remote system. A script consists of one or more "expect-send" pairs of strings, separated by spaces, with an optional "subexpect-subsend" string pair, separated by a dash as in the following example: ogin:-BREAK-ogin: ppp ssword: hello2u2 In the previous example, the chat program should expect the string "ogin:". If it fails to receive a login prompt within the time inter- val allotted, it sends a break sequence to the remote, and then expects the string "ogin:". If the first "ogin:" is received, the break se- quence is not generated. Once it receives the login prompt, the chat program sends the string ppp, then expects the prompt "ssword:". When it receives the prompt for the password, it sends the password hello2u2. A carriage return is normally sent following the reply string. It is not expected in the "expect" string unless it is specifically requested by using the \r escape sequence. The expect sequence should contain only what is needed to identify the string. Since it is normally stored on a disk file, it should not con- tain variable information. It is generally not acceptable to look for time strings, network identification strings, or other variable pieces of data as an expect string. To help correct for characters that might be corrupted during the ini- tial sequence, look for the string "ogin:" rather than "login:". It is possible that the leading "l" character may be received in error and you may never find the string even though it was sent by the system. For this reason, scripts look for "ogin:" rather than "login:" and "ss- word:" rather than "password:". A very simple script is as follows: ogin: ppp ssword: hello2u2 In other words, expect ogin:, send ppp, expect ssword:, send hello2u2. In actual practice, simple scripts are rare. At the vary least, you should include sub-expect sequences should the original string not be received, as in the following script: ogin:--ogin: ppp ssword: hello2u2 The preceding script is a better script than the simple one used ear- lier. This looks for the same login: prompt, but if one is not re- ceived, it sends a single return sequence and looks for login: again. Should line noise obscure the first login prompt, sending an empty line will usually generate a login prompt again. ABORT STRINGS Many modems report the status of the call as a string. These strings may be CONNECTED or NO CARRIER or BUSY. It is often desirable to ter- minate the script should the modem fail to connect to the remote. The difficulty is that a script would not know exactly which modem string it may receive. On one attempt, it may receive BUSY while the next time it may receive NO CARRIER. These abort strings may be specified in the script using the ABORT se- quence. It is written in the script as in the following example: ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' '' ATZ OK ATDT5551212 CONNECT This sequence expects nothing, then sends the string ATZ. The expected response to this is the string OK. When it receives OK, it sends the string ATDT5551212 to dial the telephone. The expected string is CON- NECT. If the string CONNECT is received, the remainder of the script is executed. If the modem finds the telephone busy, it sends the string BUSY. This causes the string to match the abort character sequence. The script then fails because it found a match to the abort string. If it re- ceives the string NO CARRIER string, it aborts for the same reason. Either string may be received. Either string terminates the chat script. TIMEOUT The initial timeout value is 45 seconds. This may be changed using the -t timeout option. To change the timeout value for the next expect string, the following example may be used: ATZ OK ATDT5551212 CONNECT TIMEOUT 10 ogin:--ogin: TIMEOUT 5 assword: hello2u2 This changes the timeout to 10 seconds when it expects the login: prompt. The timeout is then changed to 5 seconds when it looks for the password prompt. The timeout, once changed, remains in effect until it is changed again. SENDING EOT The special reply string of EOT indicates that the chat program should send an EOT character to the remote. This is normally the End-of-file character sequence. A return character is not sent following the EOT. The EOT sequence may be embedded into the send string using the se- quence ^D. GENERATING BREAK The special reply string of BREAK causes a break condition to be sent. The break is a special signal on the transmitter. The normal process- ing on the receiver is to change the transmission rate. It may be used to cycle through the available transmission rates on the remote until you are able to receive a valid login prompt. The break sequence may be embedded into the send string using the \K escape sequence. ESCAPE SEQUENCES The expect and reply strings may contain escape sequences. All of the sequences are valid in the reply string. Many are legal in the expect. Those which are not valid in the expect sequence are so indicated. Ex- pects or sends a null string. If you send a null string then it will still send the return character. This sequence may either be a pair of apostrophe or quote characters. Represents a backspace character. Suppresses the newline at the end of the reply string. This is the only means of sending a string without a trailing return character. It must be at the end of the send string. For example, the sequence hello\c will simply send the characters h, e, l, l, o. (Not valid in expect.) Delays for one second. The program uses sleep command, which will delay to a maximum of one second. (Not valid in expect.) Inserts a BREAK. (Not valid in expect.) Sends a newline or linefeed character. Sends a null character. The same sequence may be represented by \0. (Not valid in expect.) Pauses for a fraction of a second. The delay is 1/10th of a second. (Not valid in expect.) Suppresses writing the string to the syslog file. The string ?????? is written to the log in its place. (Not valid in expect.) Sends or expects a carriage return. Represents a space character in the string. This may be used when it is not desirable to quote the strings that contain spaces. The se- quence 'HI TIM' and HI\sTIM are the same. Sends or expects a tab char- acter. Sends or expects a backslash character. Collapses the octal digits (ddd) into a single ASCII character and sends that character. (Some characters are not valid in expect.) Substitutes the sequence with the control character represented by C. For example, the charac- ter DC1 (17) is shown as ^Q. (Some characters are not valid in ex- pect.) RELATED INFORMATION Commands: uucp(1), pppd(8), uucico(8). delim off chat(8)