# Does Julia have a native \`expect\` package?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-julia-have-a-native-expect-package/64171>\
**Category:** Community\
**Tags:** question, package\
**Created:** [July 6, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-julia-have-a-native-expect-package/64171 "2021-07-06T19:03:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cadojo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cadojo/32/25328_2.png) [@cadojo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cadojo)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-julia-have-a-native-expect-package/64171/1 "2021-07-06T19:03:08Z")

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Python, Rust, and others have pseudo-terminal functionality via [`expect`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expect#Alternatives). Has a Julia package been developed for this purpose yet?

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**Author:** ![cadojo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cadojo/32/25328_2.png) [@cadojo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cadojo)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 7:10pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-julia-have-a-native-expect-package/64171/2 "2021-07-06T19:10:00Z")

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Found this after posting. [Yuri D’Elia / Expect.jl · GitLab](https://gitlab.com/wavexx/Expect.jl).

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**Author:** ![stevengj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevengj/32/71_2.png) [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 8:09pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-julia-have-a-native-expect-package/64171/3 "2021-07-06T20:09:13Z")

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Out of curiosity, what do you need `expect` for? Nowadays, it seems relatively rare for software functionality to only be available in an interactive terminal, as opposed to having a native library or scripting API.

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**Author:** ![cadojo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cadojo/32/25328_2.png) [@cadojo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cadojo)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/does-julia-have-a-native-expect-package/64171/4 "2021-07-06T21:54:52Z")

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My use case is interacting with the [JPL HORIZONS](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi) terminal interface. You can automatically pull solar system ephemeris data using an open-source script they wrote. I wrote a gist on it [here](https://gist.github.com/cadojo/501afddc3f887679e2a427f87aa586a1).

From the gist:

```nohighlight
wget ftp://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/ssd/SCRIPTS/vec_tbl
wget ftp://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/ssd/SCRIPTS/vec_tbl.inp

```