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What sorts of things did these tools do?

I'm obviously aware you can't be precisely specific, but I imagine that the level of detail you _can_ share is probably still very interesting.

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One of the most popular "devops before devops was a thing" tools was Expect, which simulated an interactive session over Telnet or SSH. It effectively allowed ops to automate anything that could be done in a terminal.

Expect is a great tool and was widely used for such automation (including by EDA companies - along with Tcl), I've read. I tried it some and read the book about Expect by Don Libes, Expect's creator. A very good book, with a unique writing style, that I somewhat can't find words to describe well.

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