[falsedan]

I know what expect is (see my grandparent comment). I still don't know what this framework is to be used for:

> Start services, and then do something (maybe alert, maybe make a change and try again) if it failed.

It's a replacement for upstart/systemd/Launch Control?

> Make configuration changes across several files and check the results of the changes (i.e. did things continue to work after the change).

Puppet/Chef/Ansible + Sensu/Nagios?

> Check for updates in version control and then optionally deploy them based on the results (e.g. if there's a new tagged version).

cron?

> Interact with some API periodically, and do something if results change.

Also cron?

[wybiral]

I have several IoT devices around my home and want to push different code or configs out to them. Sure, something like Chef could work... But I'd have to install a client on each device when all I really want to do is script SSH sessions.

[falsedan]

Great, that really helps me visualise a use case where an expect framework would shine.