I've recently become a fan of expect-lite[1], which has a much simpler syntax.

Here are some examples:

  Check the IP address of the localhost

  >ifconfig
  <192\.168\.1\.1
  >ip -6 addr show
  <2001:db8::f00d

  ssh to a remote host

  >ssh root@host-021
  <assword:
  >>secret_password
  # issue a command once logged in
  >ls
  >exit

[1] - http://expect-lite.sourceforge.net/