Empty - an expectlike tool to run command-line interactive programs in UNIX shell-scripts empty is an utility that provides an interface to execute and/or interact with processes under pseudo-terminal sessions (PTYs). It can be used to automate otherwise interactive programs like telnet, ssh, and ftp. In some cases, empty can be the simplest replacement for TCL/expect or other (similar) programming tools. Empty is also Somewhat similar in functionality to POTS modem chat(8) or the scripting capabilities of minicom(1); however it's small and general purpose.