How to paste multiline text into nodejs REPL without spamming the terminal

Question

I'm working with the nodejs REPL through a Linux terminal. I have a large portion of code that I want to paste into nodejs. However, pasting the code causes the terminal to become non-responsive for a little while. This is because the REPL spits the following text with every line of the expression:

Array                 Boolean               Date                  Error                 EvalError
Function              Infinity              JSON                  Math                  NaN
Number                Object                RangeError            ReferenceError        RegExp
String                SyntaxError           TypeError             URIError              decodeURI
decodeURIComponent    encodeURI             encodeURIComponent    eval                  isFinite
isNaN                 parseFloat            parseInt              undefined                 

ArrayBuffer           Buffer                DataView              FMM                   Float32Array
Float64Array          GLOBAL                Int16Array            Int32Array            Int8Array
Uint16Array           Uint32Array           Uint8Array            Uint8ClampedArray     _
assert                buffer                child_process         clearImmediate        clearInterval
clearTimeout          cluster               console               crypto                dgram
dns                   domain                escape                events                fs
global                http                  https                 module                net
os                    path                  process               punycode              querystring
readline              require               root                  setImmediate          setInterval
setTimeout            stream                string_decoder        tls                   tty
unescape              url                   util                  vm                    zlib    

__defineGetter__      __defineSetter__      __lookupGetter__      __lookupSetter__      constructor
hasOwnProperty        isPrototypeOf         propertyIsEnumerable  toLocaleString        toString
valueOf               

This is kind of annoying. I know I can work around it by pasting it into a file and loading it into REPL:

.load some-file.js

But I want to know if there's a way to do it by pasting alone, and I'm sure there must be a time and place for this.

Answer 1

The problem is that your code uses tabs for indentation, while the Node.js REPL treats tabs as cues for autocompletion.

To fix this problem, use the .editor command, which ignores tabs:

$ node
> .editor
// Entering editor mode (^D to finish, ^C to cancel)
function a() {
    console.log('hello world');
}
a();
// type ^D here
hello world
undefined
> 

.editor is a feature added in Node.js v6.4.0, so if you happen to be using a version older than that, you are out of luck.

Check out Node.js documentation for more information on these special REPL commands.