Getting live keyboard strokes to execute function in C - c

I am working on what I believe should be a simple program I have googled around and all I can find is stuff for C#, C++.
What I would like to accomplish is to start my program written in C and have it listen for certain keystrokes. I have a function written that will move a servo so I would like to integrate the Up and Down arrow keys to execute the function to move the servo one direction or the other. Is this possible in C?

Are you working on linux or windows? Based on that, there are alternatives that can be used.
If you are working on windows, a function should be familiar to you : kbhit()? Though it is now deprecated, the working knowledge of it could be useful :)
Assuming that you are working on linux, have you tried NCurses?
Taken from [Here]: (http://www.linuxmisc.com/9-unix-programmer/d5b30f8d1faf8d82.htm)
The problem is three-fold:
You have to check if data is available without blocking. A simple
'read' or fgets' or whatever will block your process until data is
available -- you don't want that.
You have to bypass any buffering
because otherwise you would have to check both the buffer and the
device.
You need to coerce the terminal driver to give you data as
it's available rather than accumulating the whole thing into a
line.
From the same page:
That said, I present the following awkward, hastily-written,
uncommented code, which may be instructive or may not ( edited in part by me, was missing parenthesis and not indented)
#include <stdio.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
static struct termios orig_term;
void u_cleanup(void)
{
tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &orig_term);
}
int u_kbhit(void)
{
struct termios t;
int ret;
fd_set rfd;
struct timeval to;
static int first_hit=0;
if(first_hit==0)
{
if(tcgetattr(0, &t)!=0) exit(0);
orig_term=t;
cfmakeraw(&t);
if(tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &t)!=0) exit(0);
atexit(u_cleanup);
first_hit=1;
}
FD_ZERO(&rfd);
FD_SET(0, &rfd);
to.tv_sec=0;
to.tv_usec=0;
if(select(1, &rfd, NULL, NULL, &to)==1) return 1;
return 0;
}
int u_getchar(void)
{
int ret;
fd_set rfc;
unsigned char buf;
if(read(0, &buf, 1)!=1) ret=0;
else ret=buf;
return ret;
}
int main(void)
{
while(1)
{
if(u_kbhit())
{
int key=u_getchar();
printf("hit: %d\r\n", key);
if(key==3)
{
printf("you hit control-c\r\n");
exit(0);
}
}
usleep(100);
}
return 0; // inaccessible code, to prevent compiler warning
}

Related

How to remove characters(^\), ctrl + \(SIGQUIT), from STDIN in C [duplicate]

Good day,
I'm writing my own shell in C for my school which has to resemble bash as closely as possible.
I have to handle signals such as Ctrl-\ and Ctrl-C as bash does; for this reason I'm allowed to use signal function. It works fine, but the thing is whenever a Ctrl-C signal is caught (starting from the second catch), a ^C is printed.
On the net, I've found a workaround suggesting printing "\b \b\b \b\nminishell$ " whenever a Ctrl-C is caught, which will devour the two symbols. The thing is, since at the very first time ^C is not printed, the print devours two symbols of my prompting, making it just minishell instead of minishell$ , with the cursor incorrectly displayed.
Now I've come up with another workaround for this workaround which is to declare a static boolean to not print the baskspaces at the very first call. This doesn't help in case of Ctrl-\ though; Ctrl-\ proceeds to move my cursor to right when I attempt to write the two whitespaces that must replace the ^\.
I don't like these workarounds and would like to know whether there is a way to instruct the terminal not to output this stuff? I'm allowed to use tgetent, tgetflag, tgetnum, tgetstr, tgoto, tputs, tcsetattr, tcgetattr, have read their man pages but nothing seems to be helpful.
When you type a key on a terminal, two things happen
the character is echoed (displayed) on this terminal
the character is sent (over the line) to the attached program
Both these actions can be controlled via termios/tcsetattr(): a different character(s) can be sent or echoed, some can be suppressed, etc. (some/most of these actions take place in the terminal-driver , but this is not relevant here)
Demonstration: using tcsetattr() to control the echoing of the terminal:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define _SVID_SOURCE 1
#include <termios.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <signal.h>
struct termios termios_save;
void reset_the_terminal(void)
{
tcsetattr(0, 0, &termios_save );
}
sig_atomic_t the_flag = 0;
void handle_the_stuff(int num)
{
char buff[4];
buff[0] = '[';
buff[2] = '0' + num%10;
num /= 10;
buff[1] = '0' + num%10;
buff[3] = ']';
write(0, buff, sizeof buff);
the_flag = 1;
}
int main (void)
{
int rc;
int ch;
struct termios termios_new;
rc = tcgetattr(0, &termios_save );
if (rc) {perror("tcgetattr"); exit(1); }
rc = atexit(reset_the_terminal);
if (rc) {perror("atexit"); exit(1); }
termios_new = termios_save;
termios_new.c_lflag &= ~ECHOCTL;
rc = tcsetattr(0, 0, &termios_new );
if (rc) {perror("tcsetattr"); exit(1); }
signal(SIGINT, handle_the_stuff);
printf("(pseudoshell)Start typing:\n" );
while(1) {
ch = getc(stdin);
if (the_flag) {
printf("Saw the signal, last character was %02x\n", (unsigned) ch);
break;
}
}
exit (0);
}
The way to set the console such a SW may intercept all typed chars is to set the terminal in RAW MODE. The problems this way may present are that all keys that aren't in the ASCII 0-255 space, such as è, ì, à will be received from the console as a bytes sequence and all the function and control keys included cursors and backspace will not accomplish any action, some code such as CR, LF and some ANSI sequence may accomplish actions when are read from the input channel and rewritten on the output channel.
To set the terminal in raw mode you have to use the function cfmakeraw followed by the function tcsetattr.
The code below implements a simple but not very good implemented terminal, anyway I think this code is a good point to start. In any case, the code flow and the error control must be at least better arranged.
The code writes all sequence of ASCII char that enter into the console when a key is typed. All chars that have value smaller then 32 or greater then 126 will be written as [HEX-CODE]
I.E. hitting Esc on the console will be written [1B], the code of Ctrl+C will be written as [03], F1 will be [1B]OP, F11 will be [1B][23~, Enter will be [0D].
If you will hit Ctrl+X [18] will be written and the program stops, but this behaviour is under SW control as you can see in the code.
Here the code:
#include <stdio.h> // Standard input/output definitions
#include <string.h> // String function definitions
#include <unistd.h> // UNIX standard function definitions
#include <fcntl.h> // File control definitions
#include <errno.h> // Error number definitions
#include <termios.h> // POSIX terminal control definitions (struct termios)
#include <sys/ioctl.h> // Used for TCGETS2, which is required for custom baud rates
#include <sys/select.h> // might be used to manage select
int setAttr(int ch, int resetToOld);
#define IN 0
#define OUT 1
typedef struct TermCap
{
int fd;
struct termios oldTermios;
struct termios newTermios;
// fd_set fds; // might be used to manage select
} TermCap;
TermCap m_termCap[2];
int main()
{
int i,ex=0;
char msg;
char buff[20];
m_termCap[IN].fd=STDIN_FILENO;
m_termCap[OUT].fd=STDOUT_FILENO;
// Gets STDIN config and set raw config
setAttr(IN,0);
// Gets STDOUT config and set raw config
setAttr(OUT,0);
// Console loop ... the console terminates when ^X is intercepted.
do {
do {
i=read(m_termCap[IN].fd,&msg,1);
if (i>0){
if (msg<32 || msg>126) {
sprintf(buff,"[%02X]",(unsigned char)msg);
write(m_termCap[OUT].fd,buff,4);
if (msg==24)
ex=1;
}else{
write(m_termCap[OUT].fd,&msg,i);
}
}
usleep(10000); // a minimal delay of 10 millisec
} while(i>0 && !ex);
} while(!ex);
// Reset console to initial state.
setAttr(IN,1);
setAttr(OUT,1);
printf("\r\n\nThe end!");
return 0;
}
int setAttr(int ch, int resetToOld)
{
int retVal=0;
int i;
if (!resetToOld) {
// Read old term config
i=tcgetattr(m_termCap[ch].fd, &m_termCap[ch].oldTermios);
if (i==-1) {
return 1;
}
}
m_termCap[ch].newTermios = m_termCap[ch].oldTermios;
if (!resetToOld) {
// Terminal in raw mode
cfmakeraw(&m_termCap[ch].newTermios);
}
i=tcsetattr(m_termCap[ch].fd, TCSANOW, &m_termCap[ch].newTermios);
if (i==-1) {
retVal = 2;
}
return retVal;
}
Wouldn't this work?
void signalHandler(int signo){
if(signo==SIGINT){
printf("\b\b \b\b");
fflush(NULL);
printf("\nHello World\n");
}
}
In my shell it seems to work fine. The first printf and fflush is what you have to implement in your handler. The printf after that is just a way for me to show you that you can, then, do whatever you want after the ^C not appearing.
Why does this make it not appear? In the first printf I erase the characters by using backspaces and spaces. As stdout is buffered by default and I didn't want to use a newline character, I flushed the buffer manually.

Forcing a terminal not to print Ctrl hotkeys when signals are caught

Good day,
I'm writing my own shell in C for my school which has to resemble bash as closely as possible.
I have to handle signals such as Ctrl-\ and Ctrl-C as bash does; for this reason I'm allowed to use signal function. It works fine, but the thing is whenever a Ctrl-C signal is caught (starting from the second catch), a ^C is printed.
On the net, I've found a workaround suggesting printing "\b \b\b \b\nminishell$ " whenever a Ctrl-C is caught, which will devour the two symbols. The thing is, since at the very first time ^C is not printed, the print devours two symbols of my prompting, making it just minishell instead of minishell$ , with the cursor incorrectly displayed.
Now I've come up with another workaround for this workaround which is to declare a static boolean to not print the baskspaces at the very first call. This doesn't help in case of Ctrl-\ though; Ctrl-\ proceeds to move my cursor to right when I attempt to write the two whitespaces that must replace the ^\.
I don't like these workarounds and would like to know whether there is a way to instruct the terminal not to output this stuff? I'm allowed to use tgetent, tgetflag, tgetnum, tgetstr, tgoto, tputs, tcsetattr, tcgetattr, have read their man pages but nothing seems to be helpful.
When you type a key on a terminal, two things happen
the character is echoed (displayed) on this terminal
the character is sent (over the line) to the attached program
Both these actions can be controlled via termios/tcsetattr(): a different character(s) can be sent or echoed, some can be suppressed, etc. (some/most of these actions take place in the terminal-driver , but this is not relevant here)
Demonstration: using tcsetattr() to control the echoing of the terminal:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define _SVID_SOURCE 1
#include <termios.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <signal.h>
struct termios termios_save;
void reset_the_terminal(void)
{
tcsetattr(0, 0, &termios_save );
}
sig_atomic_t the_flag = 0;
void handle_the_stuff(int num)
{
char buff[4];
buff[0] = '[';
buff[2] = '0' + num%10;
num /= 10;
buff[1] = '0' + num%10;
buff[3] = ']';
write(0, buff, sizeof buff);
the_flag = 1;
}
int main (void)
{
int rc;
int ch;
struct termios termios_new;
rc = tcgetattr(0, &termios_save );
if (rc) {perror("tcgetattr"); exit(1); }
rc = atexit(reset_the_terminal);
if (rc) {perror("atexit"); exit(1); }
termios_new = termios_save;
termios_new.c_lflag &= ~ECHOCTL;
rc = tcsetattr(0, 0, &termios_new );
if (rc) {perror("tcsetattr"); exit(1); }
signal(SIGINT, handle_the_stuff);
printf("(pseudoshell)Start typing:\n" );
while(1) {
ch = getc(stdin);
if (the_flag) {
printf("Saw the signal, last character was %02x\n", (unsigned) ch);
break;
}
}
exit (0);
}
The way to set the console such a SW may intercept all typed chars is to set the terminal in RAW MODE. The problems this way may present are that all keys that aren't in the ASCII 0-255 space, such as è, ì, à will be received from the console as a bytes sequence and all the function and control keys included cursors and backspace will not accomplish any action, some code such as CR, LF and some ANSI sequence may accomplish actions when are read from the input channel and rewritten on the output channel.
To set the terminal in raw mode you have to use the function cfmakeraw followed by the function tcsetattr.
The code below implements a simple but not very good implemented terminal, anyway I think this code is a good point to start. In any case, the code flow and the error control must be at least better arranged.
The code writes all sequence of ASCII char that enter into the console when a key is typed. All chars that have value smaller then 32 or greater then 126 will be written as [HEX-CODE]
I.E. hitting Esc on the console will be written [1B], the code of Ctrl+C will be written as [03], F1 will be [1B]OP, F11 will be [1B][23~, Enter will be [0D].
If you will hit Ctrl+X [18] will be written and the program stops, but this behaviour is under SW control as you can see in the code.
Here the code:
#include <stdio.h> // Standard input/output definitions
#include <string.h> // String function definitions
#include <unistd.h> // UNIX standard function definitions
#include <fcntl.h> // File control definitions
#include <errno.h> // Error number definitions
#include <termios.h> // POSIX terminal control definitions (struct termios)
#include <sys/ioctl.h> // Used for TCGETS2, which is required for custom baud rates
#include <sys/select.h> // might be used to manage select
int setAttr(int ch, int resetToOld);
#define IN 0
#define OUT 1
typedef struct TermCap
{
int fd;
struct termios oldTermios;
struct termios newTermios;
// fd_set fds; // might be used to manage select
} TermCap;
TermCap m_termCap[2];
int main()
{
int i,ex=0;
char msg;
char buff[20];
m_termCap[IN].fd=STDIN_FILENO;
m_termCap[OUT].fd=STDOUT_FILENO;
// Gets STDIN config and set raw config
setAttr(IN,0);
// Gets STDOUT config and set raw config
setAttr(OUT,0);
// Console loop ... the console terminates when ^X is intercepted.
do {
do {
i=read(m_termCap[IN].fd,&msg,1);
if (i>0){
if (msg<32 || msg>126) {
sprintf(buff,"[%02X]",(unsigned char)msg);
write(m_termCap[OUT].fd,buff,4);
if (msg==24)
ex=1;
}else{
write(m_termCap[OUT].fd,&msg,i);
}
}
usleep(10000); // a minimal delay of 10 millisec
} while(i>0 && !ex);
} while(!ex);
// Reset console to initial state.
setAttr(IN,1);
setAttr(OUT,1);
printf("\r\n\nThe end!");
return 0;
}
int setAttr(int ch, int resetToOld)
{
int retVal=0;
int i;
if (!resetToOld) {
// Read old term config
i=tcgetattr(m_termCap[ch].fd, &m_termCap[ch].oldTermios);
if (i==-1) {
return 1;
}
}
m_termCap[ch].newTermios = m_termCap[ch].oldTermios;
if (!resetToOld) {
// Terminal in raw mode
cfmakeraw(&m_termCap[ch].newTermios);
}
i=tcsetattr(m_termCap[ch].fd, TCSANOW, &m_termCap[ch].newTermios);
if (i==-1) {
retVal = 2;
}
return retVal;
}
Wouldn't this work?
void signalHandler(int signo){
if(signo==SIGINT){
printf("\b\b \b\b");
fflush(NULL);
printf("\nHello World\n");
}
}
In my shell it seems to work fine. The first printf and fflush is what you have to implement in your handler. The printf after that is just a way for me to show you that you can, then, do whatever you want after the ^C not appearing.
Why does this make it not appear? In the first printf I erase the characters by using backspaces and spaces. As stdout is buffered by default and I didn't want to use a newline character, I flushed the buffer manually.

Issue with getch() [duplicate]

I'm trying to write a program in C (on Linux) that loops until the user presses a key, but shouldn't require a keypress to continue each loop.
Is there a simple way to do this? I figure I could possibly do it with select() but that seems like a lot of work.
Alternatively, is there a way to catch a ctrl-c keypress to do cleanup before the program closes instead of non-blocking io?
As already stated, you can use sigaction to trap ctrl-c, or select to trap any standard input.
Note however that with the latter method you also need to set the TTY so that it's in character-at-a-time rather than line-at-a-time mode. The latter is the default - if you type in a line of text it doesn't get sent to the running program's stdin until you press enter.
You'd need to use the tcsetattr() function to turn off ICANON mode, and probably also disable ECHO too. From memory, you also have to set the terminal back into ICANON mode when the program exits!
Just for completeness, here's some code I've just knocked up (nb: no error checking!) which sets up a Unix TTY and emulates the DOS <conio.h> functions kbhit() and getch():
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/select.h>
#include <termios.h>
struct termios orig_termios;
void reset_terminal_mode()
{
tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &orig_termios);
}
void set_conio_terminal_mode()
{
struct termios new_termios;
/* take two copies - one for now, one for later */
tcgetattr(0, &orig_termios);
memcpy(&new_termios, &orig_termios, sizeof(new_termios));
/* register cleanup handler, and set the new terminal mode */
atexit(reset_terminal_mode);
cfmakeraw(&new_termios);
tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &new_termios);
}
int kbhit()
{
struct timeval tv = { 0L, 0L };
fd_set fds;
FD_ZERO(&fds);
FD_SET(0, &fds);
return select(1, &fds, NULL, NULL, &tv) > 0;
}
int getch()
{
int r;
unsigned char c;
if ((r = read(0, &c, sizeof(c))) < 0) {
return r;
} else {
return c;
}
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
set_conio_terminal_mode();
while (!kbhit()) {
/* do some work */
}
(void)getch(); /* consume the character */
}
select() is a bit too low-level for convenience. I suggest you use the ncurses library to put the terminal in cbreak mode and delay mode, then call getch(), which will return ERR if no character is ready:
WINDOW *w = initscr();
cbreak();
nodelay(w, TRUE);
At that point you can call getch without blocking.
On UNIX systems, you can use sigaction call to register a signal handler for SIGINT signal which represents the Control+C key sequence. The signal handler can set a flag which will be checked in the loop making it to break appropriately.
You probably want kbhit();
//Example will loop until a key is pressed
#include <conio.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
while(1)
{
if(kbhit())
{
break;
}
}
}
this may not work on all environments. A portable way would be to create a monitoring thread and set some flag on getch();
Another way to get non-blocking keyboard input is to open the device file and read it!
You have to know the device file you are looking for, one of /dev/input/event*. You can run cat /proc/bus/input/devices to find the device you want.
This code works for me (run as an administrator).
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <linux/input.h>
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
int fd, bytes;
struct input_event data;
const char *pDevice = "/dev/input/event2";
// Open Keyboard
fd = open(pDevice, O_RDONLY | O_NONBLOCK);
if(fd == -1)
{
printf("ERROR Opening %s\n", pDevice);
return -1;
}
while(1)
{
// Read Keyboard Data
bytes = read(fd, &data, sizeof(data));
if(bytes > 0)
{
printf("Keypress value=%x, type=%x, code=%x\n", data.value, data.type, data.code);
}
else
{
// Nothing read
sleep(1);
}
}
return 0;
}
The curses library can be used for this purpose. Of course, select() and signal handlers can be used too to a certain extent.
If you are happy just catching Control-C, it's a done deal. If you really want non-blocking I/O but you don't want the curses library, another alternative is to move lock, stock, and barrel to the AT&T sfio library. It's nice library patterned on C stdio but more flexible, thread-safe, and performs better. (sfio stands for safe, fast I/O.)
There is no portable way to do this, but select() might be a good way. See http://c-faq.com/osdep/readavail.html for more possible solutions.
You can do that using select as follow:
int nfds = 0;
fd_set readfds;
FD_ZERO(&readfds);
FD_SET(0, &readfds); /* set the stdin in the set of file descriptors to be selected */
while(1)
{
/* Do what you want */
int count = select(nfds, &readfds, NULL, NULL, NULL);
if (count > 0) {
if (FD_ISSET(0, &readfds)) {
/* If a character was pressed then we get it and exit */
getchar();
break;
}
}
}
Not too much work :D
Here's a function to do this for you. You need termios.h which comes with POSIX systems.
#include <termios.h>
void stdin_set(int cmd)
{
struct termios t;
tcgetattr(1,&t);
switch (cmd) {
case 1:
t.c_lflag &= ~ICANON;
break;
default:
t.c_lflag |= ICANON;
break;
}
tcsetattr(1,0,&t);
}
Breaking this down: tcgetattr gets the current terminal information and stores it in t. If cmd is 1, the local input flag in t is set to non-blocking input. Otherwise it is reset. Then tcsetattr changes standard input to t.
If you don't reset standard input at the end of your program you will have problems in your shell.
In C++, I did this:
#include <chrono>
#include <thread>
using namespace std::chrono_literals;
void OnEnter()
{
while (true)
{
getchar();
// do something when enter is pressed
}
}
int main()
{
std::thread keyBoardCommands(OnEnter);
while(true)
{
// code for main loop
std::this_thread::sleep_for(16ms);
}
}
This code would be platform-independent.

Reading Serial Data From C (OSX /dev/tty)

I am trying to read data from a bluetooth barcode scanner (KDC300) using C. Here is the code I have so far, and the program successfully establishes a bluetooth connection to the scanner, but when a barcode is scanned, no input is displayed on the screen (Eventually more will be done with the data, but we have to get it working first, right).
Here is the program:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) {
// define vars
int STOP = 0;
//char buf[255];
if(argv[1])
{
int fd = open("/dev/tty.KDC1", O_RDONLY);
if(fd == -1)
{
printf("%s", strcat("Unable to open /dev/tty.", argv[1]));
}
int res;
while(STOP == 0)
{
while((res = read(fd,buf,255)) == 0);
{
if(res > 0)
{
buf[res]=0;
printf("%s:%d\n", buf, res);
if(buf[sizeof(buf)]=='\n') break;
}
}
}
}
return 0;
}
If anyone has any ideas, I am at a loss on this so far. If it is any help, I can run screen /dev/tty.KDC1 and any barcodes scanned on the scanner appear in the terminal, I just can't do anything with the data.
Jud
This line:
while((res = read(fd,buf,255)) == 0);
Does not do what you think it does. That's a while loop with an empty body.
#tommieb75,
the strcat statement was from the first "go" at the program, I took a variable from argv[1] and appended it to the /dev/tty.* so you could select which device you wanted to monitor.
I am not sure why I had commented out buf, probably stems from looking at the code too much / trying different approaches and forgetting where I was (not much of a C programmer, which is how I can get lost in 30 LOC).
#caf, Good catch on the extra semi-colon after the while loop, unfortunately, even after correcting it, the program doesn't behave correctly.
I am researching the problem further. I can verify (with osx packetlogger) that the computer is getting the data, but the but the buffer never has any data placed in it.
-Jud
---------------Edit--------------
I solved the problem after a little trial and error. Adding the following code to setup the serial connection solved everything:
struct termios theTermios;
memset(&theTermios, 0, sizeof(struct termios));
cfmakeraw(&theTermios);
cfsetspeed(&theTermios, 115200);
theTermios.c_cflag = CREAD | CLOCAL; // turn on READ
theTermios.c_cflag |= CS8;
theTermios.c_cc[VMIN] = 0;
theTermios.c_cc[VTIME] = 10; // 1 sec timeout
ioctl(fileDescriptor, TIOCSETA, &theTermios);
Thanks to the other answers for getting me to this point.
Here is the best info I've found.
The C program on there using termios worked just by adding
#include<string.h>
And changing the baudrate to match my needs.
In your code
printf("%s", strcat("Unable to open /dev/tty.", argv[1]));
Why did you do that? It would be easier to do it this way:
printf("%s: Unable to open /dev/tty.KDC1", argv[0]);
Why the parameter referencing to the command line?
res = read(fd,buf,255)
Why did you have buf declaration commented out above?

How do you do non-blocking console I/O on Linux in C?

How do you do nonblocking console IO on Linux/OS X in C?
I want to add an example:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char const *argv[])
{
char buf[20];
fcntl(0, F_SETFL, fcntl(0, F_GETFL) | O_NONBLOCK);
sleep(4);
int numRead = read(0, buf, 4);
if (numRead > 0) {
printf("You said: %s", buf);
}
}
When you run this program you have 4 seconds to provide input to standard in. If no input found, it will not block and will simply return.
2 sample executions:
Korays-MacBook-Pro:~ koraytugay$ ./a.out
fda
You said: fda
Korays-MacBook-Pro:~ koraytugay$ ./a.out
Korays-MacBook-Pro:~ koraytugay$
Like Pete Kirkham, I found cc.byexamples.com, and it worked for me. Go there for a good explanation of the problem, as well as the ncurses version.
My code needed to take an initial command from standard input or a file, then watch for a cancel command while the initial command was processed. My code is C++, but you should be able to use scanf() and the rest where I use the C++ input function getline().
The meat is a function that checks if there is any input available:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/select.h>
// cc.byexamples.com calls this int kbhit(), to mirror the Windows console
// function of the same name. Otherwise, the code is the same.
bool inputAvailable()
{
struct timeval tv;
fd_set fds;
tv.tv_sec = 0;
tv.tv_usec = 0;
FD_ZERO(&fds);
FD_SET(STDIN_FILENO, &fds);
select(STDIN_FILENO+1, &fds, NULL, NULL, &tv);
return (FD_ISSET(0, &fds));
}
This has to be called before any stdin input function When I used std::cin before using this function, it never returned true again. For example, main() has a loop that looks like this:
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
std::string initialCommand;
if (argc > 1) {
// Code to get the initial command from a file
} else {
while (!inputAvailable()) {
std::cout << "Waiting for input (Ctrl-C to cancel)..." << std::endl;
sleep(1);
}
std::getline(std::cin, initialCommand);
}
// Start a thread class instance 'jobThread' to run the command
// Start a thread class instance 'inputThread' to look for further commands
return 0;
}
In the input thread, new commands were added to a queue, which was periodically processed by the jobThread. The inputThread looked a little like this:
THREAD_RETURN inputThread()
{
while( !cancelled() ) {
if (inputAvailable()) {
std::string nextCommand;
getline(std::cin, nextCommand);
commandQueue.lock();
commandQueue.add(nextCommand);
commandQueue.unlock();
} else {
sleep(1);
}
}
return 0;
}
This function probably could have been in main(), but I'm working with an existing codebase, not against it.
For my system, there was no input available until a newline was sent, which was just what I wanted. If you want to read every character when typed, you need to turn off "canonical mode" on stdin. cc.byexamples.com has some suggestions which I haven't tried, but the rest worked, so it should work.
You don't, really. The TTY (console) is a pretty limited device, and you pretty much don't do non-blocking I/O. What you do when you see something that looks like non-blocking I/O, say in a curses/ncurses application, is called raw I/O. In raw I/O, there's no interpretation of the characters, no erase processing etc. Instead, you need to write your own code that checks for data while doing other things.
In modern C programs, you can simplify this another way, by putting the console I/O into a thread or lightweight process. Then the I/O can go on in the usual blocking fashion, but the data can be inserted into a queue to be processed on another thread.
Update
Here's a curses tutorial that covers it more.
I bookmarked "Non-blocking user input in loop without ncurses" earlier this month when I thought I might need non-blocking, non-buffered console input, but I didn't, so can't vouch for whether it works or not. For my use, I didn't care that it didn't get input until the user hit enter, so just used aio to read stdin.
Here's a related question using C++ -- Cross-platform (linux/Win32) nonblocking C++ IO on stdin/stdout/stderr
Another alternative to using ncurses or threads is to use GNU Readline, specifically the part of it that allows you to register callback functions. The pattern is then:
Use select() on STDIN (among any other descriptors)
When select() tells you that STDIN is ready to read from, call readline's rl_callback_read_char()
If the user has entered a complete line, rl_callback_read_char will call your callback. Otherwise it will return immediately and your other code can continue.
Let`s see how it done in one of Linux utilites. For example, perf/builtin-top.c sources (simplified):
static void *display_thread(void *arg)
{
struct pollfd stdin_poll = { .fd = 0, .events = POLLIN };
struct termios save;
set_term_quiet_input(&save);
while (!done) {
switch (poll(&stdin_poll, 1, delay_msecs)) {
...
}
}
tcsetattr(0, TCSAFLUSH, &save);
}
So, if you want to check if any data available, you can use poll() or select() like this:
#include <sys/poll.h>
...
struct pollfd pfd = { .fd = 0, .events = POLLIN };
while (...) {
if (poll(&pfd, 1, 0)>0) {
// data available, read it
}
...
}
In this case you will receive events not on each key, but on whole line, after [RETURN] key is pressed. It's because terminal operates in canonical mode (input stream is buffered, and buffer flushes when [RETURN] pressed):
In canonical input processing mode, terminal input is processed in
lines terminated by newline ('\n'), EOF, or EOL characters. No input
can be read until an entire line has been typed by the user, and the
read function (see Input and Output Primitives) returns at most a
single line of input, no matter how many bytes are requested.
If you want to read characters immediately, you can use noncanonical mode. Use tcsetattr() to switch:
#include <termios.h>
void set_term_quiet_input()
{
struct termios tc;
tcgetattr(0, &tc);
tc.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ECHO);
tc.c_cc[VMIN] = 0;
tc.c_cc[VTIME] = 0;
tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &tc);
}
Simple programm (link to playground):
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/poll.h>
#include <termios.h>
void set_term_quiet_input()
{
struct termios tc;
tcgetattr(0, &tc);
tc.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ECHO);
tc.c_cc[VMIN] = 0;
tc.c_cc[VTIME] = 0;
tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &tc);
}
int main() {
struct pollfd pfd = { .fd = 0, .events = POLLIN };
set_term_quiet_input();
while (1) {
if (poll(&pfd, 1, 0)>0) {
int c = getchar();
printf("Key pressed: %c \n", c);
if (c=='q') break;
}
usleep(1000); // Some work
}
}
Not entirely sure what you mean by 'console IO' -- are you reading from STDIN, or is this a console application that reads from some other source?
If you're reading from STDIN, you'll need to skip fread() and use read() and write(), with poll() or select() to keep the calls from blocking. You may be able to disable input buffering, which should cause fread to return an EOF, with setbuf(), but I've never tried it.

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