Changing the system clock with pexpect confuses pexpect!

[Saqib Ali]

See my code below.

I'm controlling a shell logged in as root with pexpect.

The class below has a method (startProc) which spawns a shell and
keeps it alive until told to destroy it (stopProc).

The other 2 methods in this class allow me to change the system clock
and to get the IP Address of this machine.

They all work fine.... except when I advance the system clock, and
then try to get the IP Address.
In that case, I get an exception because pexpect incorrectly thinks
the output it is getting from ifconfig is invalid. But it is not.
Pexpect is just confused. This doesn't happen when I move the clock
backwards. It only happens when I move the clock forward.

I believe what is going on is that internally pexpect uses the system
clock to keep track of when it receives data from spawned processes.
When I mess with the clock, that messes up the internal workings of
pexpect.

Any suggestions what I should do? I have numerous concurrent pexpect
processes running when I modify the clock. Is there anyway to prevent
them all from getting totally screwed up??

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


#!/usr/bin/env python
import pexpect, os, time, datetime, re

def reportPrint(string):
print string

def reportAssert(condition, string)
if condition == False:
print string
raise Exception


class rootManager:

rootProc = None
rootPrompt = "] % "
myPrompt = "] % "

def __init__(self):
pass




def startProc(self):
if self.rootProc != None:
reportPrint("\t\t- Root Process is already created")
else:
self.rootProc = pexpect.spawn ('/bin/tcsh',)
i = self.rootProc.expect([pexpect.TIMEOUT,
self.myPrompt,])
reportAssert(i != 0, "Time-Out.... exiting")

reportPrint("\t\t- Sending su")
self.rootProc.sendline("su")
i = self.rootProc.expect([pexpect.TIMEOUT, "Password: ",])
reportAssert(i != 0, "Time-Out.... exiting")

reportPrint("\t\t- Sending Password")
self.rootProc.sendline(ROOT_PASSWORD)
i = self.rootProc.expect([pexpect.TIMEOUT,
self.rootPrompt,])
reportAssert(i != 0, "Time-Out.... exiting")

reportPrint("\t\t- Root Process created")


def getIPAddr(self):
reportAssert(self.rootProc != None, "No active Root Process!")

reportPrint("\t\t- Sending ifconfig -a")
self.rootProc.sendline("ifconfig -a")
i = self.rootProc.expect([pexpect.TIMEOUT, self.rootPrompt,])
reportAssert(i != 0, "Time-Out.... exiting")

outputTxt = self.rootProc.before
ipList = [i for i in re.compile("(?<=inet )\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.
\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}").findall(outputTxt) if i != "127.0.0.1"]
reportAssert(len(ipList) == 1, "Cannot determine IP Address
from 'ifconfig -a': \n%s" % outputTxt)
return ipList[0]


def changeClock(self, secondsDelta):
reportAssert(self.rootProc != None, "No active Root Process!")

newTime = datetime.datetime.now() +
datetime.timedelta(seconds=secondsDelta)
dateStr = "%02d%02d%02d%02d%s" % (newTime.month, newTime.day,
newTime.hour, newTime.minute, str(newTime.year)[-2:])
reportPrint("\t\t- Sending 'date %s' command" % dateStr)
self.rootProc.sendline("date %s" % dateStr)
#Remember, by changing the clock, you are confusing pexpect's
timeout measurement!
# so ignore timeouts in this case
i = self.rootProc.expect([pexpect.TIMEOUT,
self.rootPrompt,],)






def stopProc(self):
if self.rootProc == None:
reportPrint("\t\t- Root Process is already destroyed")
else:

reportPrint("\t\t- Sending exit command")
rootProc.sendline("exit")
i = rootProc.expect([pexpect.TIMEOUT, self.myPrompt])
reportAssert(i != 0, "Time-Out.... exiting")

reportPrint("\t\t- Sending exit command")
rootProc.sendline("exit")
i = rootProc.expect([pexpect.TIMEOUT, pexpect.EOF])
reportAssert(i != 0, "Time-Out.... exiting")
self.rootProc.close()
self.rootProc = None
reportPrint("\t\t- Root Process Destroyed")

 

[Roy Smith]

I believe what is going on is that internally pexpect uses the system
clock to keep track of when it receives data from spawned processes.
When I mess with the clock, that messes up the internal workings of
pexpect.

Any suggestions what I should do?

Yeah. Don't mess with the system clock. Seriously.

There is pretty much no reason for anybody not to be running NTP these
days. Every OS ships with it, and there's gazillions of open NTP
servers to use as references.

NTP will keep your system clock accurate to within a fraction of a
second and avoid all the horrible problems such as the one you've
discovered with pexpect when you reset your clock.