cli: overrideTemplate is stored in working directory rather than assembly directory (i.e. import does not work)

[saltman424]

Describe the bug

Recently, I have had issues using cdk import that seem to stem from the overridden template being generated in my working directory rather than the assembly directory. Obviously, when deploy tries to use the generated template, it is expecting it to come from my assembly directory. Please see the Possible Solution section below for details.

Expected Behavior

cdk import should work without any issues

Current Behavior

Error message from cdk import:

[0%] start: Building and publishing 04926632678b4ce87690ab5dff6a51bed012b313a6dbc96b8be43c23aba2a6b1:current
[100%] fail: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'C:\Users\Me\my-repo\cdk.out\assembly-MyStage\MyStack1234ABCD.template.json-04926632678b4ce87690ab5dff6a51bed012b313a6dbc96b8be43c23aba2a6b1.yaml'

 ❌  MyStage/MyStack (MyStack) failed: Error: Failed to publish one or more assets. See the error messages above for more information.

Note that the MyStack1234ABCD.template.json-04926632678b4ce87690ab5dff6a51bed012b313a6dbc96b8be43c23aba2a6b1.yaml file is added to my working directory just before it gets to this stage of the process.

Reproduction Steps

I don't have a simple repo to reproduce the issue, but in the Possible Solution section below, I believe I identified the line of code that needs to be updated.

Possible Solution

I believe this line:

aws-cdk/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts

Line 595 in 8b20446

await fs.writeFile(templateFile, templateJson, { encoding: 'utf-8' });

Should be changed to:

 await fs.writeFile(path.join(stack.assembly.directory, templateFile), templateJson, { encoding: 'utf-8' }); 

Additional Information/Context

For some reason, I did not used to get this issue. I have been using cdk import since shortly after it was released and only recently did I start having issues. I update cdk regularly, so I don't know exactly what version introduced the issue, or if there is something different in my configuration that is causing the issue to surface, but I know that when I go back to 2.46.0 I still have the issue. Also, when I go into node_modules and manually update the line mentioned above, everything works as it is supposed to.

CDK CLI Version

2.50.0 (build 4c11af6)

Framework Version

2.50.0

Node.js Version

16.15.1

OS

Windows 10 Enterprise

Language

Typescript

Language Version

4.8.4

Other information

No response

[peterwoodworth]

Thanks for reporting this @saltman424,

I'm unsure what is causing you to run into this. I'm also unable to reproduce this. However, I wonder if it has something to do with the stack being in a stage, or if you're on windows. I'm going to leave this open, it would be really helpful if we have clear reproduction steps if anyone else runs into this in the future.

Thanks for the proposed solution by the way, if necessary we can use your suggestion 🙂

[fusion27]

Experiencing this issue as well, I'm also on Windows 10. Running NodeJS v18.2.0

[tlrdstd]

I am also experiencing this issue, running on Amazon Linux 2. CDK version 2.53.0 (build 7690f43).

I confirm this only started recently - worked fine ~2 months ago, and without changing anything specific, it's stopped working.

My stacktrace below. I tried briefly to use the fix suggested above, but the error references a non-existent .ts file, and editing the .js equivalent at node_modules/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.js didn't seem to help. So I just created a symlink from the package build directory back up to my current working directory where the override template was incorrectly created:

ln -s $PWD/AmiBuilderBaseStack.template.json-ffefca5f96d16aad7d75e248477cf23371def5c11773d7e4bc776c297f618f66.yaml /workplace/me/MyPackageCDK/src/MyPackageCDK/build/cdk.out/AmiBuilderBaseStack.template.json-ffefca5f96d16aad7d75e248477cf23371def5c11773d7e4bc776c297f618f66.yaml

AmiBuilderBaseStack
AmiBuilderBaseStack/RegionalRpmBucket/RegionalRpmBucket-RpmBucket/Resource (AWS::S3::Bucket): import with BucketName=my-regional-bucket-name (yes/no) [default: yes]? y
AmiBuilderBaseStack/RegionalRpmBucket/RegionalRpmBucket-RpmBucket/Policy/Resource: unsupported resource type AWS::S3::BucketPolicy, skipping import.
AmiBuilderBaseStack: importing resources into stack...
[0%] start: Building and publishing ffefca5f96d16aad7d75e248477cf23371def5c11773d7e4bc776c297f618f66:current
[100%] fail: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/workplace/me/MyPackageCDK/src/MyPackageCDK/build/cdk.out/AmiBuilderBaseStack.template.json-ffefca5f96d16aad7d75e248477cf23371def5c11773d7e4bc776c297f618f66.yaml'

 ❌  AmiBuilderBaseStack failed: Error: Failed to publish one or more assets. See the error messages above for more information.
    at publishAssets (/workplace/me/MyPackageCDK/src/MyPackageCDK/node_modules/aws-cdk/lib/util/asset-publishing.ts:60:11)
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:95:5)
    at deployStack (/workplace/me/MyPackageCDK/src/MyPackageCDK/node_modules/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts:297:3)
    at ResourceImporter.importResources (/workplace/me/MyPackageCDK/src/MyPackageCDK/node_modules/aws-cdk/lib/import.ts:130:22)
    at CdkToolkit.import (/workplace/me/MyPackageCDK/src/MyPackageCDK/node_modules/aws-cdk/lib/cdk-toolkit.ts:485:5)
    at initCommandLine (/workplace/me/MyPackageCDK/src/MyPackageCDK/node_modules/aws-cdk/lib/cli.ts:364:12)

[saltman424]

@tlrdstd in order to update it in node_modules you actually need to update it in node_modules/aws-cdk/lib/index.js since that seems to be a bundled file. In my current version, the line that needs to be modified is 943611. You can search for if (overrideTemplate) {.

@peterwoodworth is it possible that CDK previously changed the working directory to the assembly directory, but is no longer doing so?

[turacma]

I ran into this issue as well, though it was the first time using cdk import so I cannot speak to any change in behavior. Not sure if it's relevant or similar for others on the thread, but our cdk projects contain multiple stacks (for different stages of a release pipeline).

[faridnsh]

I had the same issue as well and the mentioned fix worked for me as well.

[thake]

Ran into the same issue. I called it using the following arguments:
npx cdk import my-stack -c environment=develop -f. CDK version was 2.125.0.

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