aws-cdk: cdk synth/deploy command fails with "C:\Program" is not recognized as an internal or external command

[saste]

Describe the bug

Short log:

PS1> cdk synth --all --app MyApp\dist\bin\app.js

'C:\Program' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Subprocess exited with error 1

This happens every time I try to run cdk from a Powershell terminal, same happens when run from a cmd terminal.

Debug log:

PS1> cdk --version
2.43.1 (build c1ebb85)
PS1> node --version
v16.15.0
PS1> npm --version
8.13.1
PS1> cdk --verbose --debug synth --all --app C:\Users\sabatin\MyApp\dist\bin\app.js
CDK toolkit version: 2.43.1 (build c1ebb85)
Command line arguments: {
  _: [ 'synth' ],
  verbose: 1,
  v: 1,
  debug: true,
  all: true,
  app: 'C:\\Users\\sabatin\\MyApp\\dist\\bin\\app.js',
  a: 'C:\\Users\\sabatin\\MyApp\\dist\\bin\\app.js',
  lookups: true,
  'ignore-errors': false,
  ignoreErrors: false,
  json: false,
  j: false,
  ec2creds: undefined,
  i: undefined,
  'version-reporting': undefined,
  versionReporting: undefined,
  'path-metadata': true,
  pathMetadata: true,
  'asset-metadata': true,
  assetMetadata: true,
  'role-arn': undefined,
  r: undefined,
  roleArn: undefined,
  staging: true,
  'no-color': false,
  noColor: false,
  ci: false,
  validation: true,
  quiet: false,
  q: false,
  '$0': '..\\..\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules\\aws-cdk\\bin\\cdk'
}
cdk.json: {
  "app": "node dist/bin/app",
  "context": {
    "@aws-cdk/core:newStyleStackSynthesis": true,
    "@aws-cdk/aws-ec2:uniqueImdsv2TemplateName": true
  },
  "output": "cdk.out"
}
merged settings: {
  versionReporting: true,
  pathMetadata: true,
  output: 'cdk.out',
  app: 'C:\\Users\\sabatin\\MyApp\\dist\\bin\\app.js',
  context: {
    '@aws-cdk/core:newStyleStackSynthesis': true,
    '@aws-cdk/aws-ec2:uniqueImdsv2TemplateName': true
  },
  debug: true,
  assetMetadata: true,
  toolkitBucket: {},
  staging: true,
  bundlingStacks: [ '*' ],
  lookups: true
}
Determining if we're on an EC2 instance.
Reading cached notices from C:\Users\sabatin\.cdk\cache\notices.json
Does not look like an EC2 instance.
Toolkit stack: CDKToolkit
Setting "CDK_DEFAULT_REGION" environment variable to eu-west-1
Resolving default credentials
Retrieved account ID XXXXX from disk cache
Setting "CDK_DEFAULT_ACCOUNT" environment variable to XXXXX
context: {
  '@aws-cdk/core:newStyleStackSynthesis': true,
  '@aws-cdk/aws-ec2:uniqueImdsv2TemplateName': true,
  'aws:cdk:enable-path-metadata': true,
  'aws:cdk:enable-asset-metadata': true,
  'aws:cdk:version-reporting': true,
  'aws:cdk:bundling-stacks': [ '*' ]
}
outdir: cdk.out
env: {
  CDK_DEFAULT_REGION: 'eu-west-1',
  CDK_DEFAULT_ACCOUNT: 'XXXXX',
  CDK_DEBUG: 'true',
  CDK_CONTEXT_JSON: '{"@aws-cdk/core:newStyleStackSynthesis":true,"@aws-cdk/aws-ec2:uniqueImdsv2TemplateName":true,"aws:cdk:enable-path-metadata":true,"aws:cdk:enable-asset-metadata":true,"aws:cdk:version-reporting":true,"aws:cdk:bundling-stacks":["*"]}',
  CDK_OUTDIR: 'cdk.out',
  CDK_CLI_ASM_VERSION: '21.0.0',
  CDK_CLI_VERSION: '2.43.1'
}
'C:\Program' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Reading cached notices from C:\Users\sabatin\.cdk\cache\notices.json

Subprocess exited with error 1
Error: Subprocess exited with error 1
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (C:\Users\sabatin\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\aws-cdk\lib\api\cxapp\exec.ts:131:23)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:527:28)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:domain:475:12)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:291:12)

Note also that the exec.ts file is missing:

C:\Users\sabatin\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\aws-cdk\lib\api\cxapp\exec.ts

although the corresponding exec.js file is there (tried to edit but it's not affecting the output of the command). What is this exec.ts file about and why is it missing?

Possibly related to:
sst/sst#73

BTW adding more logs would be useful to diagnose the issue.

Expected Behavior

The command should not fail.

Current Behavior

The command fail.

Reproduction Steps

See above.

Possible Solution

No response

Additional Information/Context

No response

CDK CLI Version

2.43.1 (build c1ebb85)

Framework Version

No response

Node.js Version

v16.15.0

OS

Windows

Language

Typescript

Language Version

No response

Other information

No response

[peterwoodworth]

This issue appears to be the same, it is reported here that the issue is that node is in Program Files directory #9384

[saste]

This issue appears to be the same, it is reported here that the issue is that node is in Program Files directory #9384

Confirm it looks the same, still the issue is still existing (feel free to close this one and reopen the old one). It might be that the problem is not really about cdk but about node itself, but this needs to be root-caused.

Also, do you have advice about this?

although the corresponding exec.js file is there (tried to edit but it's not affecting the output of the command). What is this exec.ts file about and why is it missing?

[edwardaskew]

I ran into this and did some digging through the source code and git history:

I think this is actually a regression caused by #17176 which seemed to ignore the big scary comment right above the childProcess.spawn call that explained why they originally used an array of arguments rather than a string...

although the corresponding exec.js file is there (tried to edit but it's not affecting the output of the command). What is this exec.ts file about and why is it missing?

exec.ts is the original typescript source file, it gets transpiled into exec.js as part of the build process.