Thread: time limit for user input

is there a way to give a user let's say 10 seconds to enter something in?

I looked at what's in ctime and all i can do right now is just pause things for x amount of seconds.

if like to have something where a loop starts counting down and then breaks once the user enters something. If they don't answer and the timer runs out, I can record that as a bool or something.

any ideas???

As you seem to be on Linux, look at ncurses.

This question already been asked in the past. I gave this code (C) as an example, once:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#include <time.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <sys/shm.h>

const unsigned int MAX_TIME = 5;

enum
{
    OK = 0,
    TOO_SLOW
} result;

void sig_handler(int sig_num)
{
    if (sig_num == SIGCHLD)
    {
        result = OK;
    }

    else if (sig_num == SIGALRM)
    {
        result = TOO_SLOW;
    }
}

int main()
{
    pid_t chld_process;

    struct sigaction sa;

    int shm_id;
    void *data;

    assert((shm_id = shmget(IPC_PRIVATE, sizeof(int), 0600 | IPC_CREAT)) != -1);
    assert((data = shmat(shm_id, NULL, 0)) != (void*) -1);

    sa.sa_handler = sig_handler;
    sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);
    sa.sa_flags = 0;
    assert(sigaction(SIGALRM, &sa, NULL) != -1);
    assert(sigaction(SIGCHLD, &sa, NULL) != -1);

    printf("Enter a number: ");
    fflush(stdout);

    assert((chld_process = fork()) != -1);
    if (chld_process == 0)
    {
        scanf("%d", (int*) data);
        shmdt(data);
        exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
    }

    alarm(MAX_TIME);
    pause();
    alarm(0);

    if (result == OK)
    {
        printf("Thanks for %d\n", * (int*) data);
    }

    else
    {
        kill(chld_process, SIGINT);
        printf("\nToo slow... .\n");
    }

    shmdt(data);

    return 0;
}

I'm quite sure it's not the best way to do it, I did it that way because I though it could work and indeed, it worked. The code ask for a number, and you have only MAX_TIME seconds to enter it. It uses signals, shared memory segments and process creation.

Originally Posted by Salem

As you seem to be on Linux, look at ncurses.

i may throw together a ncurses example in a little while.