The special variable $ no longer works in Node 6 about n_

[borisdiakur]

If assigned, the default behavior of assigning _ to the last evaluated expression is disabled, and _ now references whatever value was explicitly set. A warning is issued on the repl - 'expression assignment to _ now disabled'.

So this seems to be the new intended behaviour in the node repl which is sad in my opinion. Currently I can not think of a fix which would retain the old behaviour. I think the simplest and smartest thing to do would be to just disable that feature and go in line with the node repl behaviour. Until I have time to implement the change I’ll keep this issue open for a discussion.