How to use expect in Bash script and ssh-copy-id

Question

From a bash script:

source ./expect.sh

I am including a expect code:

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/expect <<EOL
spawn ssh-copy-id -i /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub 111.111.111
expect '*?assword*'
send 'thepassword'
interact
EOL

And I am getting this:

spawn ssh-copy-id -i /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub 111.111.111.111
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: attempting to log in with the new key(s), to filter out any that are already installed
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: 1 key(s) remain to be installed -- if you are prompted now it is to install the new keys
[email protected]'s password: 

Then I try to connect and I am prompted for a password...

Checking the server, I'm certain no key was uploaded because I would expect to list the "authorized_keys" file:

root@server: ls /home/user/.ssh/
known_hosts

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

In addition to the comment about "root":

1. single quotes are just plain characters in expect. use double quotes
2. don't forget to "hit enter" when you send the password

expect "*?assword*"
send "thepassword\r"

It's generally good practice to quote the heredoc end-word, unless you need to interpolate variables or command substitutions in the heredoc body:

some command <<'END'
# .............^...^
...
END

Answer 2

You run spawn ssh-copy-id -i /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub 111.111.111. The ip address seems to be wrong.

Answer 3

You can see from the password prompt: [email protected] that you are setting up root's key on the remote, i.e. file /root/.ssh/authorized_keys. Either run the script as user, not root, or provide an explicit ssh-copy-id ... [email protected]. This allows user to login without a password, not root.