I realize this is probably related to the Unix PATH. The processes I'm trying to run need many other special environment variables set, too. I tried to take care of this by setting the variables via the %ENV hash before the spawn, but it's not working.

I've read Loading Environment Variables from a File, but that doesn't exactly meet my needs because I need to execute many processes with requirements defined in an external configuration file.

Until I figure this out, I'll use a shell script to set up the necessary environment variables and call the command, then run that script with expect, but I'd prefer an all-Perl solution.

Here's an example of the code that presents the problem:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use warnings;

use Expect;

my $envscript = '/usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/b
+in/oracle_env.sh';
open(ENV, "$envscript 2>&1 > expect.out; env |");

while ( <ENV> ) {
    chomp;
    my ($var, $value) = split( /=/, $_, 2 );
    next if ( !defined $var or !defined $value );
    $ENV{$var} = $value;
}

close ENV;


my $command = 'exp';
my @parameters = (
    'full=y',
    'statistics=none',
    'file=/home/ghodmode/runBackup/backup/oracle_data.dmp',
);

my $patidx;
my $pattern;

my $exp = new Expect;
$exp->raw_pty(1);

$exp->spawn($command, @parameters)
    or die "Cannot spawn $command: $!\n";

$pattern = '^Username:';
$patidx = $exp->expect( 5, ( '-re', $pattern) );
$exp->send( "me\n" );

$pattern = '^Password:';
$patidx = $exp->expect( 5, ('-re', $pattern) );
$exp->send( "my_password\n" );

$exp->soft_close();
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