Getchar(), Keyboards, and EOF?

Since reading that fflush(stdin) is definitely not the way to go to clear the buffer for the keyboard (and if you don't know why, read the FAQ), I've moved over to the method of using:

Code:

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while(((flush_char = getchar()) != '\n') && (flush_char != EOF));

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I'm just wondering though, under what case would getchar() return EOF from the keyboard's input?

CTRL-Z (in DOS/win32-Console)
CTRL-D (Linux)

Could it be dependant on the compiler I'm using? (Bloodshed Dev C++ here at school)

When I press CTRL-Z all I get is a fanzy "^Z" being written to my screen.

It depends on the enviornment you're running under. You do whatever is defined on the keyboard to send EOF, and EOF gets sent to the program.

Quzah.

Okay, that makes sense, thanks alot

>I've moved over to the method of using
That's a step in the right direction, but note that it's still a Band-Aid that covers up the problem rather than fixes it.

>under what case would getchar() return EOF from the keyboard's input?
End-of-file is set for the stream, or a read error occurs. End-of-file can usually be set through a control character such as Ctrl+Z or Ctrl+D. This is beyond the scope of C though, so we can't tell you for certain. Though typically Windows and DOS systems will use the former and POSIX systems will use the latter.