NAME

getc - get the next character from the filehandle

SYNOPSIS

getc FILEHANDLE

getc

DESCRIPTION

Returns the next character from the input file attached to FILEHANDLE, or a null string at end of file. If FILEHANDLE is omitted, reads from STDIN. This is not particularly efficient. It cannot be used to get unbuffered single-characters, however. For that, try something more like:

    if ($BSD_STYLE) {
	system "stty cbreak </dev/tty >/dev/tty 2>&1";
    }
    else {
	system "stty", '-icanon', 'eol', "\001"; 
    }

    $key = getc(STDIN);

    if ($BSD_STYLE) {
	system "stty -cbreak </dev/tty >/dev/tty 2>&1";
    }
    else {
	system "stty", 'icanon', 'eol', '^@'; # ASCII null
    }
    print "\n";

Determination of whether $BSD_STYLE should be set is left as an exercise to the reader.

The POSIX::getattr() function can do this more portably on systems alleging POSIX compliance. See also the Term::ReadKey module from your nearest CPAN site; details on CPAN can be found on CPAN.