stdinread

A simple, minimalistic approach to read lines from process.stdin in node scripts that need to deal with unix shell pipes. Unfortunately, the standard readline module is not appropriated in such cases, as it deals directly with terminals (tty) and not with the acutal standard input.

While this is not a synchronous solution, it provides a javascript promise and, as such, it can be used with await, making it very appropriate to write sync like code, similar to Python's input().

Installation and use

Install with npm i stdinread. To use, import readline and done. The first function returns a promise (thus, use await). Call the second function when you are done reading the input. It performs a clean up and pauses the stream. Unfortunately, this is necessary to pause the reader stream and allow the process to terminate.

Import the module, using ES6 syntax (remember, your module must be an ES6 module; use "type": "module" in package.json or use the mjs extension in your module). Call readline() with await to read lines from stdin. Once you're done, call done(). The code below imitates cat to demonstrate how the module is used.

import { readline, done } from 'stdinread';

while (true) {
    let line = await readline();
    if (line == null) break;
    console.log(line);
}

done();