Question

In RingoJS there’s a function called read which allows you to read an entire stream until the end is reached. This is useful when you’re making a command line application. For example you may write a tac program as follows:

#!/usr/bin/env ringo

var string = system.stdin.read(); // read the entire input stream
var lines = string.split("\n");   // split the lines

lines.reverse();                  // reverse the lines

var reversed = lines.join("\n");  // join the reversed lines
system.stdout.write(reversed);    // write the reversed lines

This allows you to fire up a shell and run the tac command. Then you type in as many lines as you wish to and after you’re done you can press Ctrl+D (or Ctrl+Z on Windows) to signal the end of transmission.

I want to do the same thing in node.js but I can’t find any function which would do so. I thought of using the readSync function from the fs library to simulate as follows, but to no avail:

fs.readSync(0, buffer, 0, buffer.length, null);

The file descriptor for stdin (the first argument) is 0. So it should read the data from the keyboard. Instead it gives me the following error:

Error: ESPIPE, invalid seek
    at Object.fs.readSync (fs.js:381:19)
    at repl:1:4
    at REPLServer.self.eval (repl.js:109:21)
    at rli.on.self.bufferedCmd (repl.js:258:20)
    at REPLServer.self.eval (repl.js:116:5)
    at Interface.<anonymous> (repl.js:248:12)
    at Interface.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:96:17)
    at Interface._onLine (readline.js:200:10)
    at Interface._line (readline.js:518:8)
    at Interface._ttyWrite (readline.js:736:14)

How would you synchronously collect all the data in an input text stream and return it as a string in node.js? A code example would be very helpful.

Answer 1

The key is to use these two Stream events:

Event: 'data'
Event: 'end'

For stream.on('data', ...) you should collect your data data into either a Buffer (if it is binary) or into a string.

For on('end', ...) you should call a callback with you completed buffer, or if you can inline it and use return using a Promises library.