Rerunning projen cannot proceed due to existing license.

[raurir]

Rerunning projen cannot proceed due to existing license.

[mrgrain]

Yes, apologies. Here's what's happening:

1. Your code is adding a LICENSE file
2. Your code attempts to remove an existing license with project.tryRemoveFile("LICENSE");, but it's executed first, so this has no effect.
3. PDK is then attempting to add a LICENSE file as part of preSynthesize. This is kind of bad, because if it is doing it there it should check if a license already exists. It kind of does that, but only on a component level, not a file level. PDK checks for instanceof projen.License but you have just added a textfile.
4. 💥

To fix this, you need to tell PDK to not add licenses:

const monorepo = new MonorepoTsProject({
 // other options
  licenseOptions: {
    disableDefaultLicenses: true,
  },
});

This is not really a bug in projen, but the error could be much better.
You should consider re-opening this issue in the PDK repo: https://github.com/aws/aws-pdk (cc @agdimech)

[mrgrain]

Thanks for reporting. We'll need your project type and config.

[mrgrain]

You can probably fix this by removing your LICENSE file manually.

[raurir]

You can probably fix this by removing your LICENSE file manually.

Hi, that was my first attempt... no luck. I have tried quite a few more tricks to narrow down the scope of the problem... no luck.

Re: project type (easy enough) and config, do you want the whole projenrc.ts?

[mrgrain]

As much as you can share. I'll just need to reproduce the issue somehow.

[raurir]

As much as you can share. I'll just need to reproduce the issue somehow.

This is a recently adopted project on my half, so not entirely sure for the reasoning behind this approach we are using, but I have narrowed it down to some custom license generation code:

export const licenseFile = (project: Project) => {
  project.tryRemoveFile("LICENSE");
  new TextFile(project, "LICENSE", { lines: getLongLicense() }); // line 3
};

Since we are running a monorepo with multiple projects, the license files were wanted to be added in many places. (ie licenseFile is called in multiple spots like licenseFile(api), licenseFile(website) etc. Disabling line 3 above fixes the projen synth, but then apache licenses show up everywhere in the repository :)

Created a repo which demonstrates the above. Thanks in advance!

[mrgrain]

Thanks for the reproduction! I'll have a look.

so not entirely sure for the reasoning behind this approach we are using

My best guess is that you are using a custom/customized license (as in a license text that is not supported by projen).

[raurir]

My best guess is that you are using a custom/customized license (as in a license text that is not supported by projen).

It is simply plain text, I am unsure how it could be unsupported. Anyhow thanks for looking, keen to hear your feedback. :)

[raurir]

Thanks for the reproduction! I'll have a look.

Hi, were you able to reproduce this issue? Thanks in advance.

[raurir]

Unfortunately we are stuck in an upgrade loop, and we need the latest version of pdk to fix this (licenseOptions does not exist...)

Referencing that upgrade issue here: aws/aws-pdk#784