I would suggest performing multiple expects, as opposed to doing multi-pattern matching. Consider:

my $exp;

foreach (@hosts) {
        $exp = Expect->spawn("ssh -l $username $_")
                or die "Cannot spawn ssh: $!\n";

        do_exp ($timeout, 'password $', $oldpass);
        do_exp ($timeout, "$username\]", 'passwd');
        do_exp ($timeout, 'password:', $oldpass);
        do_exp ($timeout, 'password:', $newpass);
        do_exp ($timeout, 'password:', $newpass);
}

sub do_exp {
        my ($_timeout, $_lookfor, $_send) = @_;
        if ($exp->expect($_timeout, $_lookfor)) {
                $exp->send($_send);
        } else {
                die "Timeout waiting for $_lookfor.\n";
        }
}
[download]

This way your script will look for the patterns in order as opposed to getting confused as to when to send what (especially since three of the patterns you're trying to match are exactly the same). If you want to change the pattern matching from string to regex, you only need to change the following in the do_exp sub:

if ($exp->expect($_timeout, $_lookfor)) {
[download]

to:

if ($exp->expect($_timeout,'-re',$_lookfor)) {
[download]

One final suggestion: I'd try to match "Old password:" and "New password:" instead of just "password:".

Hope it helps,
scott.

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.