function similar to getchar

Is there a Go function similar to C's getchar able to handle tab press in console? I want to make some sort of completion in my console app.

C's getchar() example:

#include <stdio.h>
void main()
{
	char ch;
	ch = getchar();
	printf("Input Char Is :%c",ch);
}

Go equivalent:

package main

import (
	"bufio"
	"fmt"
	"os"
)

func main() {

	reader := bufio.NewReader(os.Stdin)
	input, _ := reader.ReadString('\n')

	fmt.Printf("Input Char Is : %v", string([]byte(input)[0]))

	// fmt.Printf("You entered: %v", []byte(input))
}

The last commented line just shows that when you press tab the first element is U+0009 ('CHARACTER TABULATION').

However for your needs (detecting tab) C's getchar() is not suitable as it requires the user to hit enter. What you need is something like ncurses' getch()/ readline/ jLine as mentioned by @miku. With these, you actually wait for a single keystroke.

So you have multiple options:

1. Use ncurses / readline binding, for example https://code.google.com/p/goncurses/ or equivalent like https://github.com/nsf/termbox

2. Roll your own see http://play.golang.org/p/plwBIIYiqG for starting point

3. use os.Exec to run stty or jLine.

refs:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/golang-nuts/zhBE5MH4n-Q

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/golang-nuts/S9AO_kHktiY

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/golang-nuts/icMfYF8wJCk

Assuming that you want unbuffered input (without having to hit enter), this does the job on UNIX systems:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "os"
    "os/exec"
)

func main() {
    // disable input buffering
    exec.Command("stty", "-F", "/dev/tty", "cbreak", "min", "1").Run()
    // do not display entered characters on the screen
    exec.Command("stty", "-F", "/dev/tty", "-echo").Run()
    // restore the echoing state when exiting
    defer exec.Command("stty", "-F", "/dev/tty", "echo").Run()

    var b []byte = make([]byte, 1)
    for {
        os.Stdin.Read(b)
        fmt.Println("I got the byte", b, "("+string(b)+")")
    }
}

Other answers here suggest such things as:

• Using cgo

  • inefficient
  • "cgo is not Go"

• os.Exec of stty

  • not portable
  • inefficient
  • error prone

• using code that uses /dev/tty

  • not portable

• using a GNU readline package

  • inefficient if it's a wrapper to C readline or if implemented using one of the above techniques
  • otherwise okay

However, for the simple case this is easy just using a package from the Go Project's Sub-repositories.

[Edit: Previously this answer used the golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/terminal package which has since been deprecated; it was moved to golang.org/x/term. Code/links updated appropriately.]

Basically, use
term.MakeRaw and
term.Restore
to set standard input to raw mode (checking for errors, e.g. if stdin is not a terminal); then you can either read bytes directly from os.Stdin, or more likely, via a bufio.Reader (for better efficiency).

For example, something like this:

package main

import (
	"bufio"
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"os"

	"golang.org/x/term"
)

func main() {
	// fd 0 is stdin
	state, err := term.MakeRaw(0)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalln("setting stdin to raw:", err)
	}
	defer func() {
		if err := term.Restore(0, state); err != nil {
			log.Println("warning, failed to restore terminal:", err)
		}
	}()

	in := bufio.NewReader(os.Stdin)
	for {
		r, _, err := in.ReadRune()
		if err != nil {
			log.Println("stdin:", err)
			break
		}
		fmt.Printf("read rune %q\r\n", r)
		if r == 'q' {
			break
		}
	}
}

Thanks goes to Paul Rademacher - this works (at least on Mac):

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"fmt"

	"github.com/pkg/term"
)

func getch() []byte {
	t, _ := term.Open("/dev/tty")
	term.RawMode(t)
	bytes := make([]byte, 3)
	numRead, err := t.Read(bytes)
	t.Restore()
	t.Close()
	if err != nil {
		return nil
	}
	return bytes[0:numRead]
}

func main() {
	for {
		c := getch()
		switch {
		case bytes.Equal(c, []byte{3}):
			return
		case bytes.Equal(c, []byte{27, 91, 68}): // left
			fmt.Println("LEFT pressed")
		default:
			fmt.Println("Unknown pressed", c)
		}
	}
	return
}

1- You may use C.getch():

This works in Windows command line, Reads only one character without Enter:
(Run output binary file inside shell (terminal), not inside pipe or Editor.)

<!-- language: lang-golang -->

package main

//#include<conio.h>
import "C"

import "fmt"

func main() {
	c := C.getch()
	fmt.Println(c)
}

2- For Linux ( tested on Ubuntu ):

package main

/*
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <termios.h>
char getch(){
	char ch = 0;
	struct termios old = {0};
	fflush(stdout);
	if( tcgetattr(0, &old) < 0 ) perror("tcsetattr()");
	old.c_lflag &= ~ICANON;
	old.c_lflag &= ~ECHO;
	old.c_cc[VMIN] = 1;
	old.c_cc[VTIME] = 0;
	if( tcsetattr(0, TCSANOW, &old) < 0 ) perror("tcsetattr ICANON");
	if( read(0, &ch,1) < 0 ) perror("read()");
	old.c_lflag |= ICANON;
	old.c_lflag |= ECHO;
	if(tcsetattr(0, TCSADRAIN, &old) < 0) perror("tcsetattr ~ICANON");
	return ch;
}
*/
import "C"

import "fmt"

func main() {
	fmt.Println(C.getch())
	fmt.Println()
}

See:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7469139/what-is-equivalent-to-getch-getche-in-linux
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8792317/why-cant-i-find-conio-h-on-linux

3- Also this works, but needs "Enter":

<!-- language: lang-golang -->

package main

import (
	"bufio"
	"fmt"
	"os"
)

func main() {
	r := bufio.NewReader(os.Stdin)
	c, err := r.ReadByte()
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	fmt.Println(c)
}

You can also use ReadRune:

reader := bufio.NewReader(os.Stdin)
// ...
char, _, err := reader.ReadRune()
if err != nil {
	fmt.Println("Error reading key...", err)
}

A rune is similar to a character, as GoLang does not really have characters, in order to try and support multiple languages/unicode/etc.