Sample DIALOG File

The following example shows an example dialog procedure.
Note: We do not recommend embedding passwords in command procedures. It is a potential security risk. This example serves to show only the principles behind DIALOG.
! This is an example dialog file. It may be 
! invoked from the monitor interface using the 
! command:
!
! DIALOG filename [system]
!
!
!
! The command connects to the console of the 
! specified system or systems then sends the 
! specified strings and awaits the specified
! responses as though it were a user typing on the 
! connected console.
!
! Valid commands within a dialog file are UNLOCK,
! SEND and WAIT. They are described in the example
! below. Lines with a ! or # in the first
! character position are treated as comments.
!
! This example dialog logs a user into a OpenVMS 
! system.
!
! The RATE command sets the interval the DIALOG waits
! between SEND commands.
! This allows systems that are not able to do flow 
! control properly to work.
! Set the interval in this example to 5 seconds.
RATE 5
!
! The UNLOCK command forces the console upon which
! the dialog is being
! executed to be unlocked i.e. any other connected
! users are placed into
! read-only mode. This command should be executed 
! before the first SEND command. Otherwise the SEND
! command will fail if another user is connected to
! the console.
!
UNLOCK
!
! The SEND command sends the characters in quotes to 
! the connected console
! as though a connected user had typed them. The send
! command always appends a carriage Enter to the 
! quoted string. The command below is, therefore
! sending a carriage Enter to the OpenVMS console to 
! get a username prompt up.
!
SEND ""
!
! The WAIT command causes the dialog to wait until a
! specified regular expression is seen on the
! connected console line. The first argument is
! a timeout in seconds after which the WAIT will 
! terminate with an error causing the whole dialog 
! sequence to terminate as well. A timeout value
! of zero causes an indefinite wait.
!
! The quoted string is the awaited regular 
! expression. In this case we are waiting for the
! username prompt from OpenVMS.
!
WAIT 20 "Username:"
!
! Now send our username.
!
SEND "SMITHJ"
!
! Await the password prompt.
!
WAIT 20 "Password:"
!
! Send our password
!
SEND "SMITHJS_PASSWORD"
!
! Await the DCL prompt - give it plenty of time to get logged in.
!
WAIT 40 "$"
!
! Send any DCL commands you want executed here
!
SEND "SHOW TIME"
!
! This particular dialog exits leaving you logged in to the console.
!