aws cdk commands fail with error "Subprocess exited with error null"

[ddev1122]

Describe the bug

When I run any cdk command, it fails with the following error and exit code 1:
Subprocess exited with error null
No extra helpful information is printed out.
However, when I use --verbose it raises the following info
Example running cdk ls --verbose
:

[14:56:39] Reading cached notices from /Users/{user}/.cdk/cache/notices.json

Subprocess exited with error null
[14:56:39] Error: Subprocess exited with error null
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/Users/{user}/.nvm/versions/node/v18.19.0/lib/node_modules/aws-cdk/lib/index.js:423:50595)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:517:28)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:domain:489:12)
    at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:292:12)

Expected Behavior

List stacks or show a more helpful error message.

Current Behavior

Fails with subprocess exited with error null

Reproduction Steps

I have been able to run cdk ls, synth and deploy in other repository's, but not this one

Possible Solution

No response

Additional Information/Context

I have tried different combinations of version of node (20, 14) , npm, and aws-cdk but still running into the same issue.
I am able to run cdk and deploy this same code/repo on a windows machine
I am using pyenv and nvm for version management, and running these cdk commands within a python poetry environment

CDK CLI Version

2.118

Framework Version

No response

Node.js Version

18.19.0

OS

Mac Sonoma 14.2.1

Language

Python

Language Version

3.8.10

Other information

No response

[pahud]

I am not sure if this is related to the notice cache(/Users/{user}/.cdk/cache/notices.json) but it should be safe to delete it and run cdk ls -vvv again.

Can you try that and see if it is fixed?

[ddev1122]

Hi, just tried it and still getting the same error. The notices.json just gets recreated each time

[mrgrain]

Please run with --debug

The line about notices might be misleading. That's likely just the last thing that worked.

[ddev1122]

Still immediately exiting with error when running cdk commands
ex.
cdk ls --debug or cdk synth --debug
Subprocess exited with error null

[mrgrain]

Still immediately exiting with error when running cdk commands ex. cdk ls --debug or cdk synth --debug Subprocess exited with error null

Sorry I didn't clearly state this before @ddev1122 : Running with --debug will still fail, but can you please post the stack trace when running cdk ls --debug. The --debug stack trace will point us to the actual code point to identify what is going wrong (as opposed to the pretty useless standard stack trace).

[ddev1122]

Hi Mrgrain, I am not seeing any stack trace.
Immediately after entering those commands
the next line output is
Subprocess exited with error null

[mrgrain]

Hmm, @ddev1122 so in your first post you got this stack trace:

[14:56:39] Error: Subprocess exited with error null
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/Users/{user}/.nvm/versions/node/v18.19.0/lib/node_modules/aws-cdk/lib/index.js:423:50595)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:517:28)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:domain:489:12)
    at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:292:12)

Are you still getting this? But with --debug you get no stack trace?

[ddev1122]

Correct - if i use --verbose, I get that stack trace, but with --debug, no output is given

[mrgrain]

Alright, so apparently you need to run cdk ls -vvv --debug - Apologies, I wrongly assumed that --debug implies verbosity. Could you try that again and post the output?

[ddev1122]

Sure, here is the output running
cdk ls -vvv -debug

[13:05:54] outdir: cdk.out
[13:05:54] env: {
  CDK_DEFAULT_REGION: 'us-west-2',
  CDK_DEFAULT_ACCOUNT: 'ACCTNUMBER',
  CDK_DEBUG: 'true',
  CDK_OUTDIR: 'cdk.out',
  CDK_CLI_ASM_VERSION: '36.0.0',
  CDK_CLI_VERSION: '2.118.0'
}

[13:05:54] Notices refreshed
[13:05:58] Reading cached notices from /Users/{}/.cdk/cache/notices.json

Subprocess exited with error null
[13:05:59] Error: Subprocess exited with error null
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/Users/{user}/.nvm/versions/node/v18.19.0/lib/node_modules/aws-cdk/lib/api/cxapp/exec.ts:121:23)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:517:28)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:domain:489:12)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:292:12)

I believe this is the code from the cdk lib thats raising that error (cxapp/exec.js)

    async function exec(commandAndArgs) {
        return new Promise((ok, fail) => {
            // We use a slightly lower-level interface to:
            //
            // - Pass arguments in an array instead of a string, to get around a
            //   number of quoting issues introduced by the intermediate shell layer
            //   (which would be different between Linux and Windows).
            //
            // - Inherit stderr from controlling terminal. We don't use the captured value
            //   anyway, and if the subprocess is printing to it for debugging purposes the
            //   user gets to see it sooner. Plus, capturing doesn't interact nicely with some
            //   processes like Maven.
            const proc = childProcess.spawn(commandAndArgs, {
                stdio: ['ignore', 'inherit', 'inherit'],
                detached: false,
                shell: true,
                env: {
                    ...process.env,
                    ...env,
                },
            });
            proc.on('error', fail);
            proc.on('exit', code => {
                if (code === 0) {
                    return ok();
                }
                else {
                    return fail(new Error(`Subprocess exited with error ${code}`));
                }
            });
        });
    }

[mrgrain]

Okay, I think your cdk app doesn't synthesize correctly. Obviously the error should be more helpful.

In the meantime:

• What is the command for your CDK app? That's the app value in cdk.json.
• If you run this command directly, does it work? If you get an error, is it more helpful?
• Are you using a non default synthesizer? If so, can you provide the code snippets how you use it.

[ddev1122]

• The command being used is python app.py
• If I run this directly, I am getting a Segmentation fault: 11 (not sure if this is any more helpful)
• We are using the default synthesizer

[mrgrain]

• If I run this directly, I am getting a Segmentation fault: 11 (not sure if this is any more helpful)

It tells us the following:

• The issue is not with the AWS CDK CLI
• The issue is within Python

I'm not a Python expert, but found this when googling, maybe it's https://blog.richard.do/2018/03/18/how-to-debug-segmentation-fault-in-python/

You can probably use standard debugging techniques to find the offending code.

I have been able to run cdk ls, synth and deploy in other repository's, but not this one

Do you know if this ever worked?

[ddev1122]

Finally got the commands to run..
I upgraded python from 3.8.10 to 3.12 and updated some of the package dependencies...that seemed to do it
Thanks for your help.

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