C non-blocking keyboard input

Question

I\'m trying to write a program in C (on Linux) that loops until the user presses a key, but shouldn\'t require a keypress to continue each loop.

Is there a simple wa

Answer 1

Another way to get non-blocking keyboard input is to open the device file and read it!

You have to know the device file you are looking for, one of /dev/input/event*. You can run cat /proc/bus/input/devices to find the device you want.

This code works for me (run as an administrator).

  #include 
  #include 
  #include 
  #include 
  #include 
  #include 

  int main(int argc, char** argv)
  {
      int fd, bytes;
      struct input_event data;

      const char *pDevice = "/dev/input/event2";

      // Open Keyboard
      fd = open(pDevice, O_RDONLY | O_NONBLOCK);
      if(fd == -1)
      {
          printf("ERROR Opening %s\n", pDevice);
          return -1;
      }

      while(1)
      {
          // Read Keyboard Data
          bytes = read(fd, &data, sizeof(data));
          if(bytes > 0)
          {
              printf("Keypress value=%x, type=%x, code=%x\n", data.value, data.type, data.code);
          }
          else
          {
              // Nothing read
              sleep(1);
          }
      }

      return 0;
   }