Look at the FAQ Anywhay below is a solution from FAQ that works on a linux platform (and cygwin) only . Here is a module that provides all necessary methods. HotKey.pm

package HotKey;

    @ISA = qw(Exporter);
    @EXPORT = qw(cbreak cooked readkey);

    use strict;
    use POSIX qw(:termios_h);
    my ($term, $oterm, $echo, $noecho, $fd_stdin);

    $fd_stdin = fileno(STDIN);
    $term     = POSIX::Termios->new();
    $term->getattr($fd_stdin);
    $oterm     = $term->getlflag();

    $echo     = ECHO | ECHOK | ICANON;
    $noecho   = $oterm & ~$echo;

    sub cbreak {
        $term->setlflag($noecho);  # ok, so i don't want echo either
        $term->setcc(VTIME, 1);
        $term->setattr($fd_stdin, TCSANOW);
    }

    sub cooked {
        $term->setlflag($oterm);
        $term->setcc(VTIME, 0);
        $term->setattr($fd_stdin, TCSANOW);
    }

    sub readkey {
        my $key = '';
        cbreak();
        sysread(STDIN, $key, 1);
        cooked();
        return $key;
    }

    END { cooked() }

  1;
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#! /usr/bin/perl

use HotKey;

loop {
    $key = readkey();  
    print "you printed - $key \n";
} until $key eq 'a';
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