I'm writing an expect script to use sftp to download a file from a secure server. Actually, I'm modifying one of my existing scripts which does the same thing. I'm already doing this with several other scripts for different customers. However, this clearing house has issued a username with a back slash in he middle of it. I can manually sftp to the site using: sftp user\\name@sftp.server.com, (note the TWO back slashes, it doesn't work otherwise. The back slash has to be escaped.) When I pass the username parameter via a variable, $uname, I lose the back slash. I'd rather not hard-code anything into the expect script if I can help it. I've emailed the tech support folks to see if I can get a username without the back slash, but in the mean time I'm searching for a way to do it WITH the back slash. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Probably what is happening, is that spawning a shell "eats" one of the slashes. Try adding another slash, and, of course, you have to escape it: var1="user\\\\name@sftp.server.com"

I had already tried a third \ but not a fourth. I did figure out the problem though. The problem was a loose nut between the keyboard and the chair. The real issue was this: I send user\\name@sftp.server.com, the response is: user\name@sftp.server.com's password: but I was telling expect to look for: user\\name@sftp.server.com's password: Note the server is responding to the correct username, but I'm telling expect to look for formatted username. Anyway, thanks for the response.

I had already tried a third \ but not a fourth. I did figure out the problem though. The problem was a loose nut between the keyboard and the chair. The real issue was this: I send user\\name@sftp.server.com, the response is: user\name@sftp.server.com's password: but I was telling expect to look for: user\\name@sftp.server.com's password: Note the server is responding to the correct username, but I'm telling expect to look for formatted username. Anyway, thanks for the response.