Try using Term::ReadKey you can make the shell behave anyway you want by setting the ReadMode. Here is some code I wrote to capture a key, and echo back a * on a Win32 machine. It did not behave properly until (tye) got me to try putting STDIN in binmode. This may be over-board for you... play with it :)

#!/perl/bin/perl

use Term::ReadKey;

while(1){
ReadMode 3; #cbreak mode
&menu;
print "\tChoice: ";
my $key = ReadKey();
print "$key";
&hello_world if $key == 1;
&get_password if $key == 2;
if( $key eq 'q' || $key eq 'Q'){
    print "\nExiting"; exit(0);
    }
}


sub get_password{

binmode STDIN, ":raw";
ReadMode 3;
my ($key, $val, $pass, $backstop);
my @password;
my $prompt = "\n\n\tPassword: ";

system("cls");   # NOTE  if you make a call to the system you have to 
+reset the ReadMode :)
#After we make the system call... ReadMode is set back to normal or 0!
+!
ReadMode 3;
print "$prompt";
while($key = ReadKey()){

    $val = ord $key;
    push @password, $key unless $val == 8 || $val == 13;
    $backstop = @password;
    last if $val == 13;
    if($val == 8){
        pop @password;
        if($backstop) {print "\b \b"; }
    }
    print "*" unless $val == 8;
}
ReadMode 0;
binmode STDIN, ":crlf";
foreach(@password) { $pass .= $_; }
print "\n\n\tYou entered: $pass\n\t(will return to main menu in 3 tick
+s)";
sleep 3;
system("cls");
}

sub menu{

print <<MENU;

    [1] Hello World
    [2] Password Sub
    [Q] Exit
    
MENU

}

sub hello_world{
system ("cls");
for(1..10){ print "\n\t\tHELLO WORLD \n"; }
print "\n\t(will return to main menu in 3 ticks)";
sleep 3;
system ("cls");
}
[download]

Update: 13 is the ord value of the enter key and 8 is the backspace, you will need to use 10 for your enter key on a unix OS. Windows consoles "steal" the delete and arrow keys so I can't catch them. You may be able to add them to handle rubouts, it just wouldn't do it on Win32, most folks use backspace to rubout so I didn't try too hard to find a way to bind to the delete key.

---

In reply to Re: ~ simple command line program ~ by JamesNC
in thread simple command line program by primus

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