TTPForge Actions: expect

The expect action is designed to automate interactions with command-line programs that require user input. By scripting responses to prompts, expect allows you to execute commands that would otherwise pause for manual input, making it ideal for automating tasks in interactive environments. This action leverages the go-expect library to handle the automation of these interactions.

Automating Interactive Scripts

This example demonstrates how to use the expect action to automate interaction with an interactive Python script: https://github.com/facebookincubator/TTPForge/blob/ffe3d206d747c27d1043cd0a10517831568ee364/example-ttps/actions/expect/expect.yaml#L1C1-L30C29

You can experiment with the above TTP by installing the examples TTP repository (skip this if ttpforge list repos shows that the examples repo is already installed):

ttpforge install repo https://github.com/facebookincubator/TTPForge --name examples

and then running the below command:

ttpforge run examples//actions/expect/expect.yaml

Fields

You can specify the following YAML fields for the expect action:

• expect: (type: string) the command to execute that requires interaction.
• responses: (type: list) a list of responses to provide. Each entry can contain the following fields:
  • prompt: (type: string) the text prompt to expect from the command.
  • response: (type: string) the response to provide when the prompt is encountered.
• cleanup: Define a custom cleanup action to execute after the expect action completes..

Notes

• The expect action is particularly useful for automating tasks that involve interactive command-line tools, ensuring that your TTPs can run unattended.
• Ensure that the prompts specified in responses match exactly with the output of the command to ensure correct automation.
• The expect action can be used in combination with other actions to create complex, automated workflows.