"Keypress" not working when we await answer to a "question" placed in a promise

Version

v16.13.0

Platform

Ubuntu 18.04

Subsystem

No response

What steps will reproduce the bug?

Hello, I have to use keypress after asking a question to a user. For those 2 actions I use readline as follow :

import readline from "readline";

const menu = readline.createInterface({input: process.stdin, output: process.stdout});
let answer = 0;

const myFunc = async () => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        menu.question('Choose an exchange to use : ', function (answer) {
            if (isNaN(answer) || parseInt(answer) < 1 || parseInt(answer) > 10) answer = undefined;
            menu.close();
            resolve(answer);
        });
    });
}

answer = await myFunc();

readline.emitKeypressEvents(process.stdin)
process.stdin.setRawMode(true);
process.stdin.on('keypress', async (character, key) => {
    if (key.name === 'c' && key.ctrl) {
        process.exit()
    }

    if (key.name === '1' || key.name === '2' || key.name === '3' || key.name === '4') {
        console.log(key.name)
    }
});

But I have notice that keypress event is definitely not working when I ask a question before. If I just remove the question part, it works as expected.

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

It always happens when the condition of asking a question before is respected. I have noticed that when I remove "await" before the function call, it works as expected

What is the expected behavior?

The expected behaviour is : program print "1", "2", "3", "4", when I hit one of these keys, or exit when I hit ctrl+c

What do you see instead?

Instead I see nothing and program doesn't exit.

Additional information

No response

The await myFunc is blocking the rest of the code to be executed, which results on the 'keypress' event listener to be added only after the 'question' event has been emitted. If you move the answer = await myFunc() after the process.stdin.on('keypress', …) call, it should work as expected.

FWIW, you can use node:readline/promises module on Node.js 17+:

import { createInterface } from 'node:readline/promises';
import { emitKeypressEvents } from 'node:readline';

const menu = createInterface({
  input: process.stdin,
  output: process.stdout,
});
let answer = 0;

emitKeypressEvents(process.stdin);
process.stdin.setRawMode(true);
process.stdin.on('keypress', async (character, key) => {
  switch (key.name) {
    case '1':
    case '2':
    case '3':
    case '4':
      console.log(key.name);
      break;

    case 'c':
      if (key.ctrl) process.exit();
    default:
  }
});

answer = await menu.question('Choose an exchange to use : ');

if (isNaN(answer) || parseInt(answer) < 1 || parseInt(answer) > 10)
  answer = undefined;
menu.close();

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This issue has been automatically closed after 30 days of inactivity following its stale status (no activity for a total of 120 days).
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"Keypress" not working when we await answer to a "question" placed in a promise #42800

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What steps will reproduce the bug?

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

What is the expected behavior?

What do you see instead?

Additional information

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"Keypress" not working when we await answer to a "question" placed in a promise #42800

Description

Version

Platform

Subsystem

What steps will reproduce the bug?

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

What is the expected behavior?

What do you see instead?

Additional information

Activity

aduh95 commented on Apr 20, 2022

github-actions commented on Jun 25, 2026

github-actions commented on Jul 27, 2026

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