yeah, \b seems to work (okay, I feel stupid now). I could have sworn there was something about it not working in an MSDOS prompt. Perhaps I confused myself recalling not being able to check input as it happens in DOS.

Thanks!

Here's what the revised code looks like:

...

print "Working: " . $spinState[$spinner];
while(read(INFILE, $buffer, 1024)) {
   print CRYPTFILE $cipher->crypt($buffer);
   &status() if(($wrap = ($wrap + 1) % 50) && not $silent);
}
print CRYPTFILE $cipher->finish;     #-- flush remaining crap in buffe
+r
...

sub status()
{
   $spinner = ($spinner + 1) % 4;
   print "\b$spinState[$spinner]";
}
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