Hello,
  I am trying to write a Java app which outputs progress information to the command line (principally in windows, but I would like a cross-platform solution), and obviously I am using System.out for this. However, I would like to write a progress bar (like the scp progress bar) which writes to the same line on the console over and over.

  How can this be achieved?

  holdmykidney

You could use "\r" to take you back to the beginning of the line, then overwrite like:

import java.io.*;

class tmp {
        public static void main (String argv[]) {
                System.out.print ("hello\rgoodbye");
        }
}

or you could use backspaces in the same way, which might be more portable

import java.io.*;

class tmp {
        public static void main (String argv[]) {
                System.out.print ("Hallo\b\b\b\b\bGoodbye");
        }
}

--
Don't Stand on your head - you'll get footprints in your hair. http://charlieharvey.com

Spectacular. That works exactly as required.

As a footnote, it is worth pointing out that in the windows environment I was using if you write to the very last column of text, it automatically performs a line-feed, so for this to work you have to operate within the first 79 characters.
Is this correct?
Also, is there an automatic method for determining the console width? (eg. System.getProperty)

holdmykidney

oh yeh, hadn't thought of that. don't know if there is a way of finding that out. anyone else?

--
Don't Stand on your head - you'll get footprints in your hair. http://charlieharvey.com