Automatically filling in answers to interactive shell command questions

[Ravi]

Ted Weatherly wrote:
> Is it possible to use python to automatically fill in the answers to
> interactive shell command questions?  For example, I am using a shell
> command addperson that behaves as follows:
> 
>   > addperson
>   First Name: Ted
>   Birthday: 12/08/1977
>   Height: 6'0"
>   Location: San Francisco, CA
>   > 
> 
> I am prompted for "First Name: " and I enter "Ted".  I am prompted for
> "Birthday: " and I enter "12/08/1977".  Imagine doing this for 100
> people or more...it gets tiresome.
> 
> Assuming I can't change the addperson command to read data from a
> file, is there any way to use python to fill in the data for the
> expected questions?  Perhaps a different language would be better?
> 
> -Ted

As a last resort, you can always use PExpect. It pretends to be a user 
sitting at a terminal. http://pexpect.sf.net

Ravi