[pipelines] SimpleSynthAction does not create a cdk.out directory

❓ General Issue

The Question

I am attempting to create a CDK pipeline. I am following the blog post (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/cdk-pipelines-continuous-delivery-for-aws-cdk-applications/) and using Python/Pipenv. I do not commit the cdk.out directory that is created on build/deploy and that directory is usually .gitignore in all of the examples I’ve seen. I believe that gets created automatically on cdk synth. However that doesn’t happen and I get an error during the synth action: CLIENT_ERROR Message: no matching base directory path found for cdk.out during the build in the console. I am hoping I do not have to actually commit the cdk.out directory locally.

Environment

• CDK CLI Version: 1.54.0 (build c01b9b9)
• Module Version: Latest
• Node.js Version: v12.14.0
• OS: OSX Mojave
• Language (Version): Python (3.7.3)

Other information

My pipeline stack code:

class TestPipelineStack(Stack):
    @property
    def env_string(self):
        return self.node.try_get_context("env")

    def __init__(self, scope: Construct, id: str, **kwargs) -> None:
        super().__init__(scope, id, **kwargs)

        # Output artifact
        source_artifact = _codepipeline.Artifact()
        # Artifact to hold the cloudAssemblyArtifact for the synth action (the template)
        cloud_assembly_artifact = _codepipeline.Artifact()

        # Define pipeline actions for stages

        # Source
        source_action = _codepipeline_actions.GitHubSourceAction(
            action_name="GithubSourceAction",
            output=source_artifact,
            oauth_token=SecretValue.secrets_manager("github-token"),
            owner="owner",
            repo="lambdas",
            branch="test",
        )

        # Build (On synth)
        synth_action = SimpleSynthAction(
            cloud_assembly_artifact=cloud_assembly_artifact,
            source_artifact=source_artifact,
            install_command="npm install -g aws-cdk && pip install pipenv",
            build_command="pipenv sync --dev",
            synth_command="export PYTHONPATH=$PWD pipenv run cdk synth",
        )

        # Define an AWS CodePipeline-based Pipeline to deploy CDK applications
        pipeline = CdkPipeline(
            self,
            "TestPipeline",
            cloud_assembly_artifact=cloud_assembly_artifact,
            source_action=source_action,
            synth_action=synth_action,
        )

Error during the Synth build:

.......
⠙ Locking...·✔ Success!
--
1065 | Updated Pipfile.lock (cb10c5)!
1066 | Installing dependencies from Pipfile.lock (cb10c5)…
1067 | To activate this project's virtualenv, run pipenv shell.
1068 | Alternatively, run a command inside the virtualenv with pipenv run.
1069 |  
1070 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Running command export PYTHONPATH=$PWD pipenv run cdk synth
1071 |  
1072 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Phase complete: BUILD State: SUCCEEDED
1073 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Phase context status code:  Message:
1074 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Entering phase POST_BUILD
1075 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Phase complete: POST_BUILD State: SUCCEEDED
1076 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Phase context status code:  Message:
1077 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Expanding base directory path: cdk.out
1078 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Assembling file list
1079 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Expanding cdk.out
1080 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Skipping invalid file path cdk.out
1081 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Phase complete: UPLOAD_ARTIFACTS State: FAILED
1082 | [Container] 2020/08/27 01:48:18 Phase context status code: CLIENT_ERROR Message: no matching base directory path found for cdk.out

[mikelhamer]

@alexandrustf I had the same problem because my cdk project was in a subdirectory. I solved it by setting primaryOutputDirectory: 'cdk/cdk.out'

    const pipeline = new CodePipeline(this, 'Pipeline', {
      synth: new ShellStep('Synth', {
        input: CodePipelineSource.codeCommit(codecommit.Repository.fromRepositoryName(this, 'Repository',
          'myrepo'), 'main'),
        commands: ['cd cdk', 'npm ci', 'npm run build', 'npx cdk synth'],
        primaryOutputDirectory: 'cdk/cdk.out'
      })
    });

Note that if you already have the pipeline deployed you will either have to destroy it and redeploy or manually edit the buildspec of the CodeBuild project to get it to succeed the first time after making this change in the stack. Otherwise it will just keep failing at the Build step and never make it to the UpdatePipeline step to update the actual CodeBuild setting.

[alexandrustf]

I had also this problem. For me ,the problem was that the cdk.out must be in the root folder of the repository. So, I added a new command: mv cdk.out …/ .