[TriEmbed] best tool for automagic interaction with USB serial ports

[Pete Soper]

It's been many years since I used the Unix "expect" command but that was 
the industrial strength solution for automated interaction with a serial 
connection such as via ssh where you specify a "script" of "this is 
sent, this is what's received back", interactions and the logic to take 
actions based on the interaction details. What's out there now that I 
should be using, or is this still the best way to go? My host 
environment choices are Linux or Cygwin (inside a VM).

My situation is that I have three or four flavors of device that I need 
to connect to with either ssh or a terminal emulator where a script of 
some sort dictates what I have to send and what I expect back. This, in 
turn, is to deal with the musical chair situation with USB connections 
such as when I get intermittent electrical service from Duke Energy (at 
no extra cost!) I've got an automated test system where there are, for 
example, /dev/ttyACM{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7}, /dev/USB{0,1,2,3}, etc, and I 
need to establish and keep fresh meaninfully named symlinks that get 
associated with the right devices assigned randomly by system startups, 
being forced to unconnect/reconnect cables, etc.

.
Thanks,
Pete