{
        my $p=0;
        $|=1;
        sub tick {
                print substr(qq{|/-\\|/-\\}, $p++, 1), "\b";
                $p=0 if ($p > 8);
        }
}
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{
        my $bar=qq{0%..........50%..........100%};
        $|=1;
        sub bar {
                local $_=$bar;

                substr($_, $_[0]/100*length($_), 1)="|";
                print "$_\r";
        }
}
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Of course, doing a percentage report would require initial knowledge of the amount of 'stuff' to be done. In some situations, this is easy to ascertain. In others, it's impossible and a spinner-type solution is the best way to go.

package Status;

sub TIESCALAR {
  my $c = shift;

  my @v = @_;
  @v = ('|', '/', '-', '\\') unless @v;

  bless { vals => \@v,  status => 0 }, $c;
}

sub FETCH { $_[0]->{status} = ($_[0]->{status} + 1) % scalar @{ $_[0]-
+>{vals} }; return $_[0]->{vals}[ $_[0]->{status} ] }

package main;

$| = 1;

tie $s, 'Status';

while (1) {
        print $s;
        select(undef,undef,undef,0.1);
        print "\r" x 40;
}
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tie $status, 'Status', qw( - + | + );
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yesterday I somewhat fixed a version of my "progress bar fillup" I created after this thread. Most of the ideas came from tye.
This version uses a closure, and might be of use for one or another of you. Usage is simple:

my $pb = pb_fillup(<showlen>,<char>,<barlen>);
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my $pb = pb_fillup(-s $file,'#',40);
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print $pb->(length $_);
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Bye
Richard

Oh! The code:

sub pb_fillup {
    my ($max,$char,$len) = @_;         # init look&feel
    my $old_slen = -1;                 # init old showlength
    my $cur = 0;                       # init current length
 
    return sub {
        $cur += @_ ? shift : 1;
        my $slen = int $cur/$max*$len;
        my $bar;
 
        if($slen != $old_slen) {
            $bar = $char x $slen;
            $bar .= ' ' x ($len - $slen);
 
        $| = 1;
            print '[',$bar,']';
            print "\b" x ($len+2);
        $| = 0;
            $old_slen = $slen;
        }
        return;
    }
}
[download]