If you use getc() or scanf(), you only know what button the user pressed after he pressed enter. Is there a way to get direct keyboard input in the C language?
Also, i'm using gcc on Linux (Raspberry pi).
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1Can you use a library? Also, on which OS? Since what you are asking is not portable and non-standard. – Fatih BAKIR Mar 17 '16 at 18:15
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See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8792317/why-cant-i-find-conio-h-on-linux – Kurt Stutsman Mar 17 '16 at 18:15
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2Use ncurses. There's no standard C way. – hyde Mar 17 '16 at 18:19
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1You need to put the terminal in 'raw' mode. Use ncurses. – William Pursell Mar 17 '16 at 18:22
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in windows platform you should use getch() in
header.to see how to use in linux go to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7469139/what-is-equivalent-to-getch-getche-in-linux – AmirHossein Rezaei Mar 17 '16 at 18:24 -
If you want it really "raw" then you can try reading from files in `/dev/input/` – user3528438 Mar 17 '16 at 19:14
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It is OS specific (the C99 or C11 standard does not know about the keyboard). On Linux (which I am focusing on in my answer) and Unix, terminals are -for legacy and historical reasons- complex beasts (the kernel is implementing the line discipline), see tty demystified page. For gory details, see also termios(3) (the raw and noncanonical modes will give you a headache) & tty(4) & stty(1)
(you could spend months in learning the gory details; I forgot most of them)
I strongly recommend coding with a library such as ncurses or readline (or termcap, if you are masochistic enough)
If using a GUI, better use some toolkit like Qt.
To poll a set of file descriptors, use poll(2).
See also syscalls(2) and Advanced Linux Programming.
Basile Starynkevitch
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