ReadKey(3pm) User Contributed Perl Documentation ReadKey(3pm)
NAME
Term::ReadKey - A perl module for simple terminal control
SYNOPSIS
use Term::ReadKey;
ReadMode 4; # Turn off controls keys
while (not defined ($key = ReadKey(-1))) {
# No key yet
}
print "Get key $key\n";
ReadMode 0; # Reset tty mode before exiting
DESCRIPTION
Term::ReadKey is a compiled perl module dedicated to providing simple
control over terminal driver modes (cbreak, raw, cooked, etc.,) support
for non-blocking reads, if the architecture allows, and some generalized
handy functions for working with terminals. One of the main goals is to
have the functions as portable as possible, so you can just plug in "use
Term::ReadKey" on any architecture and have a good likelihood of it
working.
Version 2.30.01: Added handling of arrows, page up/down, home/end,
insert/delete keys under Win32. These keys emit xterm-compatible
sequences. Works with Term::ReadLine::Perl.
ReadMode MODE [, Filehandle]
Takes an integer argument or a string synonym (case insensitive),
which can currently be one of the following values:
INT SYNONYM DESCRIPTION
0 'restore' Restore original settings.
1 'normal' Change to what is commonly the default mode,
echo on, buffered, signals enabled, Xon/Xoff
possibly enabled, and 8-bit mode possibly disabled.
2 'noecho' Same as 1, just with echo off. Nice for
reading passwords.
3 'cbreak' Echo off, unbuffered, signals enabled, Xon/Xoff
possibly enabled, and 8-bit mode possibly enabled.
4 'raw' Echo off, unbuffered, signals disabled, Xon/Xoff
disabled, and 8-bit mode possibly disabled.
5 'ultra-raw' Echo off, unbuffered, signals disabled, Xon/Xoff
disabled, 8-bit mode enabled if parity permits,
and CR to CR/LF translation turned off.
These functions are automatically applied to the STDIN handle if no
other handle is supplied. Modes 0 and 5 have some special properties
worth mentioning: not only will mode 0 restore original settings,
but it cause the next ReadMode call to save a new set of default
settings. Mode 5 is similar to mode 4, except no CR/LF translation
is performed, and if possible, parity will be disabled (only if not
being used by the terminal, however. It is no different from mode 4
under Windows.)
If you just need to read a key at a time, then modes 3 or 4 are
probably sufficient. Mode 4 is a tad more flexible, but needs a bit
more work to control. If you use ReadMode 3, then you should install
a SIGINT or END handler to reset the terminal (via ReadMode 0) if
the user aborts the program via "^C". (For any mode, an END handler
consisting of "ReadMode 0" is actually a good idea.)
If you are executing another program that may be changing the
terminal mode, you will either want to say
ReadMode 1; # same as ReadMode 'normal'
system('someprogram');
ReadMode 1;
which resets the settings after the program has run, or:
$somemode=1;
ReadMode 0; # same as ReadMode 'restore'
system('someprogram');
ReadMode 1;
which records any changes the program may have made, before
resetting the mode.
ReadKey MODE [, Filehandle]
Takes an integer argument, which can currently be one of the
following values:
0 Perform a normal read using getc
-1 Perform a non-blocked read
>0 Perform a timed read
If the filehandle is not supplied, it will default to STDIN. If
there is nothing waiting in the buffer during a non-blocked read,
then undef will be returned. In most situations, you will probably
want to use "ReadKey -1".
NOTE that if the OS does not provide any known mechanism for non-
blocking reads, then a "ReadKey -1" can die with a fatal error. This
will hopefully not be common.
If MODE is greater then zero, then ReadKey will use it as a timeout
value in seconds (fractional seconds are allowed), and won't return
"undef" until that time expires.
NOTE, again, that some OS's may not support this timeout behaviour.
If MODE is less then zero, then this is treated as a timeout of
zero, and thus will return immediately if no character is waiting. A
MODE of zero, however, will act like a normal getc.
NOTE, there are currently some limitations with this call under
Windows. It may be possible that non-blocking reads will fail when
reading repeating keys from more then one console.
ReadLine MODE [, Filehandle]
Takes an integer argument, which can currently be one of the
following values:
0 Perform a normal read using scalar(<FileHandle>)
-1 Perform a non-blocked read
>0 Perform a timed read
If there is nothing waiting in the buffer during a non-blocked read,
then undef will be returned.
NOTE, that if the OS does not provide any known mechanism for non-
blocking reads, then a "ReadLine 1" can die with a fatal error. This
will hopefully not be common.
NOTE that a non-blocking test is only performed for the first
character in the line, not the entire line. This call will probably
not do what you assume, especially with "ReadMode" MODE values
higher then 1. For example, pressing Space and then Backspace would
appear to leave you where you started, but any timeouts would now be
suspended.
This call is currently not available under Windows.
GetTerminalSize [Filehandle]
Returns either an empty array if this operation is unsupported, or a
four element array containing: the width of the terminal in
characters, the height of the terminal in character, the width in
pixels, and the height in pixels. (The pixel size will only be valid
in some environments.)
NOTE, under Windows, this function must be called with an output
filehandle, such as "STDOUT", or a handle opened to "CONOUT$".
SetTerminalSize WIDTH,HEIGHT,XPIX,YPIX [, Filehandle]
Return -1 on failure, 0 otherwise.
NOTE that this terminal size is only for informative value, and
changing the size via this mechanism will not change the size of the
screen. For example, XTerm uses a call like this when it resizes the
screen. If any of the new measurements vary from the old, the OS
will probably send a SIGWINCH signal to anything reading that tty or
pty.
This call does not work under Windows.
GetSpeed [, Filehandle]
Returns either an empty array if the operation is unsupported, or a
two value array containing the terminal in and out speeds, in
decimal. E.g, an in speed of 9600 baud and an out speed of 4800 baud
would be returned as (9600,4800). Note that currently the in and out
speeds will always be identical in some OS's.
No speeds are reported under Windows.
GetControlChars [, Filehandle]
Returns an array containing key/value pairs suitable for a hash. The
pairs consist of a key, the name of the control character/signal,
and the value of that character, as a single character.
This call does nothing under Windows.
Each key will be an entry from the following list:
DISCARD
DSUSPEND
EOF
EOL
EOL2
ERASE
ERASEWORD
INTERRUPT
KILL
MIN
QUIT
QUOTENEXT
REPRINT
START
STATUS
STOP
SUSPEND
SWITCH
TIME
Thus, the following will always return the current interrupt
character, regardless of platform.
%keys = GetControlChars;
$int = $keys{INTERRUPT};
SetControlChars [, Filehandle]
Takes an array containing key/value pairs, as a hash will produce.
The pairs should consist of a key that is the name of a legal
control character/signal, and the value should be either a single
character, or a number in the range 0-255. SetControlChars will die
with a runtime error if an invalid character name is passed or there
is an error changing the settings. The list of valid names is easily
available via
%cchars = GetControlChars();
@cnames = keys %cchars;
This call does nothing under Windows.
AUTHOR
Kenneth Albanowski <kjahds@kjahds.com>
Currently maintained by Jonathan Stowe <jns@gellyfish.co.uk>
SUPPORT
The code is maintained at
https://github.com/jonathanstowe/TermReadKey
Please feel free to fork and suggest patches.
LICENSE
Prior to the 2.31 release the license statement was:
Copyright (C) 1994-1999 Kenneth Albanowski.
2001-2005 Jonathan Stowe and others
Unlimited distribution and/or modification is allowed as long as this
copyright notice remains intact.
And was only stated in the README file.
Because I believe the original author's intent was to be more open than
the other commonly used licenses I would like to leave that in place.
However if you or your lawyers require something with some more words
you can optionally choose to license this under the standard Perl
license:
This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the Artistic License. For details, see the full
text of the license in the file "Artistic" that should have been provided
with the version of perl you are using.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability
or fitness for a particular purpose.
perl v5.40.0 2024-10-15 ReadKey(3pm)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 07:23:54 CET 2025.