[ale] keystrokes

[Jacob Langseth]

} Is there any shell command in bash that will allow me to grab keystrokes other
} than read.  I would like to do a read command but give a time limit of 
} 60 seconds.  Ne1 know how.  Or does ne1 have a C program that will take
} the time length on the command line and return the input on STDOUT?

This _should_ do it... however, getchar() seems to block until it gets a
newline, both under SunOS and linux (why? anyone?).

If you're interested in getting everything they typed up until <RETURN>
anyway (as opposed to a single key), it'll work just fine.  Just change
the putchar( getchar() ); line to
    int c;
    while((c = getchar()) != '\n')
	putchar( c );

-JwL

/* wait_for_key.c  96.10.30 Jacob Langseth <dragon at cc.gatech.edu> */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main( int argc, char **argv )
{
    unsigned int uiTimeout=0;
    char *p;

    if (argc != 2) {
	printf( "USAGE:  wait_for_key timeout\n" );
	return( -1 );
    }

    p = *(++argv);
    while( *p ) {
	if ((*p < '0') || (*p > '9')) {
	    printf( "irk! timeout should be a number >= 0\n" );
	    return( -1 );
	}
	uiTimeout = 10 * uiTimeout + *p - '0';
	p++;
    }

    alarm( uiTimeout );
    putchar( getchar() );
    alarm( 0 );
    return( 0 );
}

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