sam build: NPM Failed when InlineCode is used

Description:

When I create a template which contains at least one function, which uses InlineCode, I cannot build the project with sam build. It fails with the message:

Build Failed
Error: NodejsNpmBuilder:NpmPack - NPM Failed: npm ERR! code ENOLOCAL
npm ERR! Could not install from "../Users/username/path/to/template/folder" as it does not contain a package.json file.

I still can run ‘sam package’, although it requires from me an --s3-bucket parameter to be provided, which makes no sense if I have only functions with InlineCode. I also can deploy with sam deploy ... if there is nothing, which I need to build first in the project.

But if I have a project with a mixture of functions, which have to be built and which have InlineCode, I cannot build it.

Steps to reproduce:

Create empty project with the runtime nodejs12.x, delete all autogenerated JS code and leave only template file with the following content.

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Transform: AWS::Serverless-2016-10-31
Description: >
  Sample SAM Template for bug report
Globals:
  Function:
    Timeout: 3

Resources:
  HelloWorldFunction:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
    Properties:
      InlineCode: "exports.handler = (event, context, callback) => { return { }; }"
      Handler: index.handler
      Runtime: nodejs12.x

Try to build it with sam build.

Observed result:

The command fails with an error.

Build Failed
Error: NodejsNpmBuilder:NpmPack - NPM Failed: npm ERR! code ENOLOCAL
npm ERR! Could not install from "../Users/username/path/to/template/folder" as it does not contain a package.json file.

Expected result:

I expect the command goes through and there are build artefacts generated in .aws-sam folder (in case template has more functions, which have to be built).

Additional environment details (Ex: Windows, Mac, Amazon Linux etc)

1. OS: macOs mojave
2. sam --version: SAM CLI, version 1.13.2

Add --debug flag to command you are running

sam build --debug
2020-12-11 11:10:51,822 | 'build' command is called
...
2020-12-11 11:10:51,868 | Building codeuri: . runtime: nodejs12.x metadata: {} functions: ['HelloWorldFunction']
2020-12-11 11:10:51,868 | Building to following folder /Users/xxx/tmp/mimas-test/.aws-sam/build/HelloWorldFunction
2020-12-11 11:10:51,869 | Loading workflow module 'aws_lambda_builders.workflows'
...
2020-12-11 11:10:51,888 | Found workflow 'NodejsNpmBuilder' to support capabilities 'Capability(language='nodejs', dependency_manager='npm', application_framework=None)'
2020-12-11 11:10:51,888 | Running workflow 'NodejsNpmBuilder'
2020-12-11 11:10:51,888 | Running NodejsNpmBuilder:NpmPack
2020-12-11 11:10:51,888 | NODEJS packaging file:/Users/xxx/tmp/mimas-test to /var/folders/sn/zhmg6dt91f55k1fcd82xplwh0000gn/T/tmp696mt8f_
2020-12-11 11:10:51,888 | executing NPM: ['npm', 'pack', '-q', 'file:/Users/xxx/tmp/mimas-test']
2020-12-11 11:10:52,301 | NodejsNpmBuilder:NpmPack failed
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/aws-sam-cli/1.13.2/libexec/lib/python3.8/site-packages/aws_lambda_builders/workflows/nodejs_npm/actions.py", line 59, in execute
    tarfile_name = self.subprocess_npm.run(["pack", "-q", package_path], cwd=self.scratch_dir).splitlines()[-1]
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/aws-sam-cli/1.13.2/libexec/lib/python3.8/site-packages/aws_lambda_builders/workflows/nodejs_npm/npm.py", line 85, in run
    raise NpmExecutionError(message=err.decode("utf8").strip())
aws_lambda_builders.workflows.nodejs_npm.npm.NpmExecutionError: NPM Failed: npm ERR! code ENOLOCAL
npm ERR! Could not install from "../../../../../../../Users/xxx/tmp/mimas-test" as it does not contain a package.json file.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/xxx/.npm/_logs/2020-12-11T10_10_52_284Z-debug.log

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/aws-sam-cli/1.13.2/libexec/lib/python3.8/site-packages/aws_lambda_builders/workflow.py", line 269, in run
    action.execute()
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/aws-sam-cli/1.13.2/libexec/lib/python3.8/site-packages/aws_lambda_builders/workflows/nodejs_npm/actions.py", line 70, in execute
    raise ActionFailedError(str(ex))
aws_lambda_builders.actions.ActionFailedError: NPM Failed: npm ERR! code ENOLOCAL
npm ERR! Could not install from "../../../../../../../Users/xxx/tmp/mimas-test" as it does not contain a package.json file.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/xxx/.npm/_logs/2020-12-11T10_10_52_284Z-debug.log

Build Failed
Error: NodejsNpmBuilder:NpmPack - NPM Failed: npm ERR! code ENOLOCAL
npm ERR! Could not install from "../../../../../../../xxx/xxx/tmp/mimas-test" as it does not contain a package.json file.

[maslakov]

Hi, I can confirm in the version 1.17 sam build goes through and deploys inline functions correctly with and without package.json

[qingchm]

Closing this issue since the InlineCode improvement https://github.com/aws/aws-sam-cli/pull/2549 corrected the behaviour to support InlineCode usage. For anyone who experienced this issue please update the SAMCLI to version 1.16 or above!