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I'm trying to run the node command in my git bash terminal. When I run the node command, nothing happens when I press enter. The $ goes away and it just leaves a blinking cursor on the next line without the >.

My-PC MINGW32 / $ node -v v4.5.0 My-PC MINGW32 / $ where node C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe My-PC MINGW32 / $ node _

Could someone tell me what the issue could be?

Thanks!!

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5
  • when you type node, it usually waits for you type javascript code. Did you tried it? Commented Sep 5, 2016 at 1:09
  • What you are seeing is the REPL. It's the expected behaviour. If you pass node a file or a directory on the command line it will run that; otherwise, you get the REPL. Commented Sep 5, 2016 at 1:11
  • @LuizFernandodaSilva Yes, I ran a simple console.log('hello'); and it returned nothing. Commented Sep 5, 2016 at 1:18
  • @cartant Thanks for the info! Commented Sep 5, 2016 at 1:19
  • Watch out for installing ruby together with MSYS2 on Windows also. Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 13:19

1 Answer 1

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If you're not getting a new line with a > after entering "node" - this is probably because newer versions of Git Bash don't run in the TTY mode they used to. Discussion here. You can verify by entering:

node -p -e "Boolean(process.stdout.isTTY)"

If that returns false - then the Node REPL (and some other console tools) won't work correctly.

There are a couple workarounds:

Workaround A

winpty node

Or you can add an alias in your .bash_profile:

alias node="winpty node" # and for npm CLI/scripts: alias npm="winpty npm.cmd"

Workaround B

Create a new shortcut to Git Bash with the following Target:

"C:\Program Files\Git\git-cmd.exe" --no-cd --command=usr/bin/bash.exe -l -i

and use that instead of the default Git Bash.

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4 Comments

Oh you have no idea how happy you have just made me!
how does the workaround B work? what does these option do? I could not find any manual online about these
Workaround B runs Git-bash in CMD mode, using the CMD terminal included with windows. I was having trouble running node programs in git-bash until I ran them in the git-cmd terminal. I subsequently uninstalled git and re-installed it specifying default use of the cmd terminal by default instead of msys2. Then I wrap the git-bash terminal in ConEmu for tabs, etc.: conemu.github.io/en/GitForWindows.html It's the best of both worlds as far as I can tell right now. I'm on 1809 so I haven't tried the new Windows Terminal yet.
Also, for a full list of command flags, try this: /c/program\ files/git/bin/bash -c "help set"

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