Question

This is a little silly, but something I’ve wanted to do before and could never figure out. I have a PHP script that runs from the command line. I’d like a little timer animation to let the user know the script is still running. Here’s what I have:

while (1 == 1) {
   echo '—';
   usleep(100000);
   echo '\';
   usleep(100000);
   echo '|';
   usleep(100000);
   echo '/';
}

But how do I get each echo to replace the character before it?

Answer 1

You need to print a backspace before each character, for example:-

echo '-';
usleep(100000);
echo "\b/";

Note that you have to use double quotes here or the escape sequence won’t work.

I’m sure you can work the rest out 🙂

If “\b” doesn’t work try:-

echo chr(8) . '/';