Why ReadKey throws exception while running a .net-core console app from Git Bash?

Question

This is the code:

ConsoleKeyInfo cki;

while((cki = Console.ReadKey(true)).Key != ConsoleKey.Escape)
{
    Console.WriteLine(cki.Key);
}

When i run it from cmd or powershell with dotnet run everything works fine. However when i run it from Git Bash it throws the following exception:

Unhandled exception. System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot read keys when either application does not have a console or when console input has been redirected. Try Console.Read.

Answer 1

Presumably, then, Git Bash is using IO redirection - which it is allowed to do - and the others ... aren't. The solution, then, is to use Read rather than ReadKey - at least if redirection is in play. You can probably detect this via Console.IsInputRedirected - and choose the most useful strategy for what is possible, but: you won't be able to detect keys in the same way, so you may need to have a slightly different user-experience in this scenario.