NodeJS script with async/await causing syntax error (v7.10.0) - node.js

Question

I am trying to use async/await in NodeJS but my script is throwing a syntax error.
I was under the impression that async/await is supported naively since Node 7.6. When I run node -v I get v7.10.0.
Here is the contents of index.js:
async function getValueAsync() {
return new Promise(function(resolve) {
resolve('foo');
});
}
let value = await getValueAsync();
console.log(value);
But when I invoke this script with node index.js I get:
let value = await getValueAsync();
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SyntaxError: Unexpected identifier
at createScript (vm.js:53:10)
at Object.runInThisContext (vm.js:95:10)
at Module._compile (module.js:543:28)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
at Module.load (module.js:488:32)
at tryModuleLoad (module.js:447:12)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:439:3)
at Module.runMain (module.js:605:10)
at run (bootstrap_node.js:427:7)
at startup (bootstrap_node.js:151:9)
I am running Linux Mint 18.1.
How can I get my script to compile and run?

Answer 1

await is only valid inside async functions, so you need, for example, an async IIFE to wrap your code with:
void async function() {
let value = await getValueAsync();
console.log(value);
}();
And, since return values from async functions are wrapped by a promise, you can shorten getValueAsync to simply this:
async function getValueAsync() {
return 'foo';
}
Or don't mark it as async and return a promise from it:
function getValueAsync() {
return new Promise(function(resolve) {
resolve('foo');
});
}