Using kbhit() and getch() on Linux

Question

On Windows, I have the following code to look for input without interrupting the loop:

#include <conio.h>
#include <Windows.h>
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    while (true)
    {
        if (_kbhit())
        {
            if (_getch() == 'g')
            {
                std::cout << "You pressed G" << std::endl;
            }
        }
        Sleep(500);
        std::cout << "Running" << std::endl;
    }
}

However, seeing that there is no conio.h, whats the simplest way of achieving this very same thing on Linux?

Answer 1

The ncurses howto cited above can be helpful. Here is an example illustrating how ncurses could be used like the conio example:

#include <ncurses.h>

int
main()
{
    initscr();
    cbreak();
    noecho();
    scrollok(stdscr, TRUE);
    nodelay(stdscr, TRUE);
    while (true) {
        if (getch() == 'g') {
            printw("You pressed G\n");
        }
        napms(500);
        printw("Running\n");
    }
}

Note that with ncurses, the iostream header is not used. That is because mixing stdio with ncurses can have unexpected results.

ncurses, by the way, defines TRUE and FALSE. A correctly configured ncurses will use the same data-type for ncurses' bool as the C++ compiler used for configuring ncurses.

Answer 2

If you are using Linux, I found this solution where you can create your own local library:

http://linux-sxs.org/programming/kbhit.html

kbhit.cpp

#include "kbhit.h"
#include <unistd.h> // read()
    
keyboard::keyboard(){
    tcgetattr(0,&initial_settings);
    new_settings = initial_settings;
    new_settings.c_lflag &= ~ICANON;
    new_settings.c_lflag &= ~ECHO;
    new_settings.c_lflag &= ~ISIG;
    new_settings.c_cc[VMIN] = 1;
    new_settings.c_cc[VTIME] = 0;
    tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &new_settings);
    peek_character=-1;
}
    
keyboard::~keyboard(){
    tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &initial_settings);
}
    
int keyboard::kbhit(){
    unsigned char ch;
    int nread;
    if (peek_character != -1) return 1;
    new_settings.c_cc[VMIN]=0;
    tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &new_settings);
    nread = read(0,&ch,1);
    new_settings.c_cc[VMIN]=1;
    tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &new_settings);

    if (nread == 1){
        peek_character = ch;
        return 1;
    }
    return 0;
}
    
int keyboard::getch(){
    char ch;

    if (peek_character != -1){
        ch = peek_character;
        peek_character = -1;
    }
    else read(0,&ch,1);
    return ch;
}

kbhit.h

#ifndef KBHIT_H
#define KBHIT_H
    
#include <termios.h>
    
class keyboard{
    public:
        keyboard();
        ~keyboard();
        int kbhit();
        int getch();

    private:
        struct termios initial_settings, new_settings;
        int peek_character;
};
    
#endif

inside main.cpp I created an instance:

#include "kbhit.h"

int main(){
    int key_nr;
    char key;
    keyboard keyb;
    while(true){
        if( keyb.kbhit() ){
            key_nr = keyb.getch(); //return int
            key = key_nr; // get ascii char
            // do some stuff
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

Answer 3

A compact solution based on Christophe's answer is

#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <termios.h>

bool kbhit()
{
    termios term;
    tcgetattr(0, &term);

    termios term2 = term;
    term2.c_lflag &= ~ICANON;
    tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &term2);

    int byteswaiting;
    ioctl(0, FIONREAD, &byteswaiting);

    tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &term);

    return byteswaiting > 0;
}

Unlike that answer, this won't leave the terminal in a weird state after the program has exited. However, it still leaves the characters sitting in the input buffer, so the key that was pressed will unwelcomely appear on the next prompt line.

A different solution which fixes this problem is

void enable_raw_mode()
{
    termios term;
    tcgetattr(0, &term);
    term.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ECHO); // Disable echo as well
    tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &term);
}

void disable_raw_mode()
{
    termios term;
    tcgetattr(0, &term);
    term.c_lflag |= ICANON | ECHO;
    tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &term);
}

bool kbhit()
{
    int byteswaiting;
    ioctl(0, FIONREAD, &byteswaiting);
    return byteswaiting > 0;
}

Usage is as follows

enable_raw_mode();
// ...
if (kbhit()) ...
// ...
disable_raw_mode();
tcflush(0, TCIFLUSH); // Clear stdin to prevent characters appearing on prompt

Now any characters typed between execution of the first and last lines won't show up in the terminal. However, if you exit with Ctrl+C the terminal is left in a weird state. (Sigh)

Answer 4

If your linux has no conio.h that supports kbhit() you can look here for Morgan Mattews's code to provide kbhit() functionality in a way compatible with any POSIX compliant system.

As the trick desactivate buffering at termios level, it should also solve the getchar() issue as demonstrated here.

Answer 5

While using ncurses is functionally equivalent to the Turbo C "conio.h" API, a more complete solution is to use a conio implementation, as can be found here.

You download and use it in your program for a very complete implementation of the conio interface, on Linux. (Or OSX.) Written by Ron Burkey.