How write a simple command line tool in C?

Question

I want to write in C a command line tool with the following requirements:

• Few commands (<10)
• History management through the arrows key
• Capability to delete what I typed previously with baskspace
• Capability to add keyborad shortcuts such as ctrl+l to clear the screen
• Protable across UNIX systems

I am not asking for code here, but for indications about where to start. I first made some experiments with "scanf" and it quickly become quite complicated. I then looked at ncurses, and it seems also quite low level. Is there any C libraries dedicated to this task, where would you start ?

Answer 1

The GNU Readline library is exactly designed for that.

Answer 2

I then looked at ncurses, and it seems also quite low level

CDK (Curses Development Kit) - high-level wrapper over ncurses. I've had successful experience with it. When you need you always can use ncurses directly.