php / php/php-src

Capture keypresses on Windows

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#12,939 3 comments 29 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Category: Streams Feature OS: Windows
Dominant language
C
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Description

Description

Some tutorials and packages show it is possible to capture and handle keypresses on terminals, but only available on *nix systems

The example below shows a commonly see implementation.

<?php

$stdin = fopen('php://stdin', 'r');
system('stty cbreak -echo');

stream_set_blocking($stdin, false);

while (1) {
    $keypress = fgets($stdin);
    if ($keypress) {
        echo 'Key pressed: ' . $keypress . PHP_EOL;
    }
}

EDIT:
This example captures keys presses in the open terminal, except: shift, alt, control, caps lock, meta and fn


This example above does not work on Windows.
The intention is to capture a single keypress, of course, without typing enter. This would make possible things like terminal games and many command line apps, working for any O.S.

This was discussed in the past here: https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34972

image

CMB gave some hope this would be implemented, and so, not a bug at all.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the historical discussion in bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34972 and the existing terminal input handling in php-src. Determine the appropriate Windows entry point and how single keypress capture should behave across supported operating systems. Done means a documented, tested cross-platform way to read a key without requiring Enter.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c, php
Domain
cli, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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