How to pass a bash array into expect - expect

Question

I have a shell script that passes a array variable to expect. But, in the expect part, it only takes the first argument and says "couldn't read file --server: no such file or directory"
below is the example program:-
Here i want the complete value of ${CMPREQUEST_ARGS[#]} which is
cmpclient --ir --server 10.10.10.10 --port 4040
CMPREQUEST=($CMPCLIENT "${CMPREQUEST_ARGS[#]}")
echo "TEST:${CMPREQUEST[#]}:TEST" //echo prints the value of ${CMPREQUEST[#]} correctly.
expect -c "
log_file -noappend -a \"/srv/Log/log/cmpclient-$app_id.log\"
log_user 1
set RET_VAL 1
set timeout 86400
puts "TEST2:${CMPREQUEST[#]}:TEST2"
spawn \${CMPREQUEST[#]}
expect {
-re \"SUCCESS\:\ write\ X509\" {
set RET_VAL 0
}
timeout { set RET_VAL 1 }
}
exit \$RET_VAL
"
exit $?
I am getting this error in spawn
couldn't read file --server: no such file or directory
Please guide..Any help would be highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

This boils down to quoting hell. Use a shell here-doc to hold the expect code, then you don't need to escape all the "interior" quotes. Your main issue is the spawn command, where you are preventing the shell from expanding the array.
Try this:
expect <<END_EXPECT
log_file -noappend -a /srv/Log/log/cmpclient-$app_id.log
log_user 1
set RET_VAL 1
set timeout 86400
puts "TEST2:${CMPREQUEST[#]}:TEST2"
spawn ${CMPREQUEST[#]}
expect {
-re {SUCCESS: write X509} {
set RET_VAL 0
}
timeout { set RET_VAL 1 }
}
exit \$RET_VAL
END_EXPECT
Only the expect variable RET_VAL needs to be protected from the shell.