Input within a time limit in Standard C

Question

I\'m currently doing my assignment and it\'s compulsory to use C-Free 5.0. Just need your help to solve this piece of puzzle. I want to implement a time limit for the user t

Answer 1

Here is an example program that shows how you can use O_NONBLOCK flag on a stdin file descriptor.

#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 

#define INPUT_LEN 10

int main()
{
    printf ("Please enter a line of text : ");
    fflush(stdout);
    time_t end = time(0) + 5; //5 seconds time limit.

    int flags = fcntl(STDIN_FILENO, F_GETFL, 0);
    fcntl(STDIN_FILENO, F_SETFL, flags | O_NONBLOCK);

    char answer[INPUT_LEN];
    int pos = 0;
    while(time(0) < end)
    {
        int c = getchar();

        /* 10 is new line */
        if (c != EOF && c != 10 && pos < INPUT_LEN - 1)
            answer[pos++] = c;

        /* if new line entered we are ready */
        if (c == 10)
            break;
    }

    answer[pos] = '\0';

    if(pos > 0)
        printf("%s\n", answer);
    else
        puts("\nSorry, I got tired waiting for your input. Good bye!");
}