The readline.emitKeypressEvents() method causes the given Readable stream to begin emitting 'keypress' events corresponding to received input.

Optionally, interface specifies a readline.Interface instance for which autocompletion is disabled when copy-pasted input is detected.

If the stream is a TTY, then it must be in raw mode.

This is automatically called by any readline instance on its input if the input is a terminal. Closing the readline instance does not stop the input from emitting 'keypress' events.

readline.emitKeypressEvents(process.stdin);
if (process.stdin.isTTY)
  process.stdin.setRawMode(true);

Example: Tiny CLI

The following example illustrates the use of readline.Interface class to implement a small command-line interface:

import readline from 'node:readline';
const rl = readline.createInterface({
  input: process.stdin,
  output: process.stdout,
  prompt: 'OHAI> ',
});

rl.prompt();

rl.on('line', (line) => {
  switch (line.trim()) {
    case 'hello':
      console.log('world!');
      break;
    default:
      console.log(`Say what? I might have heard '${line.trim()}'`);
      break;
  }
  rl.prompt();
}).on('close', () => {
  console.log('Have a great day!');
  process.exit(0);
});

Example: Read file stream line-by-Line

A common use case for readline is to consume an input file one line at a time. The easiest way to do so is leveraging the fs.ReadStream API as well as a for await...of loop:

import fs from 'node:fs';
import readline from 'node:readline';

async function processLineByLine() {
  const fileStream = fs.createReadStream('input.txt');

  const rl = readline.createInterface({
    input: fileStream,
    crlfDelay: Infinity,
  });
  // Note: we use the crlfDelay option to recognize all instances of CR LF
  // ('\r\n') in input.txt as a single line break.

  for await (const line of rl) {
    // Each line in input.txt will be successively available here as `line`.
    console.log(`Line from file: ${line}`);
  }
}

processLineByLine();

Alternatively, one could use the 'line' event:

import fs from 'node:fs';
import readline from 'node:readline';

const rl = readline.createInterface({
  input: fs.createReadStream('sample.txt'),
  crlfDelay: Infinity,
});

rl.on('line', (line) => {
  console.log(`Line from file: ${line}`);
});

Currently, for await...of loop can be a bit slower. If async / await flow and speed are both essential, a mixed approach can be applied:

import { once } from 'node:events';
import { createReadStream } from 'node:fs';
import { createInterface } from 'node:readline';

(async function processLineByLine() {
  try {
    const rl = createInterface({
      input: createReadStream('big-file.txt'),
      crlfDelay: Infinity,
    });

    rl.on('line', (line) => {
      // Process the line.
    });

    await once(rl, 'close');

    console.log('File processed.');
  } catch (err) {
    console.error(err);
  }
})();