processes started via `exec` are unable to accept input

If I try to launch npm init from a shelljs script it seems that the stdin is not passed through to that process:

require('shelljs/global')

exec('npm init')

=>

exec npm init { stdio: 'inherit' }
This utility will walk you through creating a package.json file.
It only covers the most common items, and tries to guess sensible defaults.

See `npm help json` for definitive documentation on these fields
and exactly what they do.

Use `npm install <pkg> --save` afterwards to install a package and
save it as a dependency in the package.json file.

Press ^C at any time to quit.
name: (drive) foobar

Pressing enter has no effect.

[nfischer]

Confirmed as a bug.

As a workaround, please use child_process.execSync('npm init', {stdio: 'inherit'});

Fixes are welcomed.

[jedwards1211]

Oh right. I’ve noticed that for some reason transient output like npm’s progress bar works when I use inherit but not when I do something like the above (or better, do c.stdout.pipe(process.stdout)). I haven’t figured out why that is. But it might be nice to have an option to use inherit and not capture output for that purpose.