Non-blocking console input C++

Example using C++11:

#include <iostream>
#include <future>
#include <thread>
#include <chrono>

static std::string getAnswer()
{    
    std::string answer;
    std::cin >> answer;
    return answer;
}

int main()
{

    std::chrono::seconds timeout(5);
    std::cout << "Do you even lift?" << std::endl << std::flush;
    std::string answer = "maybe"; //default to maybe
    std::future<std::string> future = std::async(getAnswer);
    if (future.wait_for(timeout) == std::future_status::ready)
        answer = future.get();

    std::cout << "the answer was: " << answer << std::endl;
    exit(0);
}

online compiler: https://rextester.com/GLAZ31262

I would do this by creating separate a thread which calls normal blocking IO functions and pass it a callback function which it would call when it got input. Are you sure you need to do what you said you want to do?

As for outputting information at the same time, what would happen if the user was in the middle of typing some input and you printed something?

I've done this on QNX4.5 that doesn't support threads or Boost by using select. You basically pass select STDIN as the file descriptor to use and select will return when a new line is entered. I've added a simplified example loop below. It's platform independent, at least for Unix like systems. Not sure about Windows though.

while (!g_quit)
{
   //we want to receive data from stdin so add these file
   //descriptors to the file descriptor set. These also have to be reset
   //within the loop since select modifies the sets.
   FD_ZERO(&read_fds);
   FD_SET(STDIN_FILENO, &read_fds);

   result = select(sfd + 1, &read_fds, NULL, NULL, NULL);
   if (result == -1 && errno != EINTR)
   {
      cerr << "Error in select: " << strerror(errno) << "\n";
      break;
   }
   else if (result == -1 && errno == EINTR)
   {
      //we've received and interrupt - handle this
      ....
   }
   else
   {
      if (FD_ISSET(STDIN_FILENO, &read_fds))
      {
         process_cmd(sfd);
      }
   }
}