Reading the terminal size
In this recipe, we'll continue digging around our terminal. Here, we write a funny little program that reports the size of the terminal live. As you resize your terminal window (assuming you are using an X console application), you'll instantly see the new size being reported.
To make this work, we'll make use of both a special escape sequence and the ioctl() function.
Knowing how to use these two tools, escape sequences, and ioctl() will enable you to do some amusing things with the terminal.
Getting ready
To make the most of this recipe, it's best to use an X-Window console, such as xterm, rxvt, Konsole, Gnome Terminal, and so on.
You'll also need the GCC compiler, the Make tool, and the generic Makefile.
How to do it…
Here, we will write a program that first clears the screen using a special escape sequence, then fetches the terminal's size and prints to the screen:
- Write the following code...
