diff --git a/irteus/irtutil.l b/irteus/irtutil.l
index 0b602bee8..3adec5c98 100644
--- a/irteus/irtutil.l
+++ b/irteus/irtutil.l
@@ -566,6 +566,38 @@ t
            )
          ,flag))))
 
+
+;;; from termbits.h
+(defcstruct termios
+  (c_iflag      :integer)
+  (c_oflag      :integer)
+  (c_cflag      :integer)
+  (c_lflag      :integer)
+  (c_line       :char)
+  (c_cc         :char 19)
+  (c_ispeed     :integer)
+  (c_ospeed     :integer))
+
+(defconstant TCSANOW 0)
+(defconstant TCSADRAIN 1)
+(defconstant TCSAFLUSH 2)
+(defconstant ICANON #0x0002)
+(defun kbhit ()
+  "Checks the console for a keystroke. retuns keycode value if a key has been pressed, otherwise it returns nil. Note that this does not work well on Emacs Shell mode, run EusLisp program from terminal shell."
+  (let ((attr-orig (unix::tcgetattr 0))
+        (buf "0")
+        attr ret)
+    (setq attr (copy-list attr-orig))
+    ;; 1000 1010 0011 1011
+    (setf (termios-c_lflag attr) (logand (termios-c_lflag attr) (lognot ICANON)))
+    (unix::tcsetattr 0 TCSANOW attr)
+    (when (= (unix::select-read-fd 1 0.001) 1)
+      (unix::uread 0 buf 1)
+      (setq ret (elt buf 0)))
+    (unix::tcsetattr 0 TCSANOW attr-orig)
+    ret))
+;;
+
 ;; piped fork returning result as list
 (defun piped-fork-returns-list (cmd &optional args)
   "piped fork returning result as list"