You can use the "\r" character to return to the first column. Or the "\b" character to backspace:

$|++; # unbuffer STDOUT
my @chars = qw(| \ - /);
my $lastChar = 0;
sub stick
{
 my $msg = shift;
 $lastChar = ++$lastChar % 4;
 print "\r$msg", $chars[ $lastChar ];
}

for (1..10000)
{
 stick("Testing: ");
 select(undef, undef, undef, 0.1);
}
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