java aws-cdk: Cdk App class initialization/constructor started to fail on Windows 10 and 11

[LukasSmrcka]

Describe the bug

Two days ago all CDK projects we have started to fail on constructor of App class. One of these projects was working before and was not even touched, no node updates, no cli updates. It is happening only on Windows 10,11 ... multiple people started to face the issue at the same time. We tried to migrate project on Ubuntu and it was working as expected. We tried to create a new CDK template project from scratch on Windows and the same issue. We suspect it was some Windows update causing this. Here is the callstack that is same everywhere:

software.amazon.jsii.JsiiError: EPERM: operation not permitted, symlink 'C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\AWS\jsii\package-cache\constructs\10.2.69\999a045971105d00548e478f26ed34c78a3f59c8d2761e5b10ff99bb9
6d18043' -> 'C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-kernel-c704Aa\node_modules\constructs'
Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, symlink 'C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\AWS\jsii\package-cache\constructs\10.2.69\999a045971105d00548e478f26ed34c78a3f59c8d2761e5b10ff99bb96d18043' -> 'C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-
kernel-c704Aa\node_modules\constructs'
at symlinkSync (node:fs:1816:3)
at link (C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-java-runtime7523181351169875103\lib\program.js:10445:38)
at extractViaCache (C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-java-runtime7523181351169875103\lib\program.js:11493:29)
at Object.extract (C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-java-runtime7523181351169875103\lib\program.js:11450:81)
at C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-java-runtime7523181351169875103\lib\program.js:9916:127
at Kernel._Kernel_debugTime (C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-java-runtime7523181351169875103\lib\program.js:10365:24)
at Kernel._Kernel_load (C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-java-runtime7523181351169875103\lib\program.js:9916:105)
at C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-java-runtime7523181351169875103\lib\program.js:9653:181
at Kernel._Kernel_debugTime (C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-java-runtime7523181351169875103\lib\program.js:10365:24)
at Kernel.load (C:\Users\annonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-java-runtime7523181351169875103\lib\program.js:9653:96)
at software.amazon.jsii.JsiiRuntime.processErrorResponse(JsiiRuntime.java:150)
at software.amazon.jsii.JsiiRuntime.requestResponse(JsiiRuntime.java:116)
at software.amazon.jsii.JsiiClient.loadModule(JsiiClient.java:56)
at software.amazon.jsii.JsiiEngine.loadModule(JsiiEngine.java:188)
at software.amazon.jsii.JsiiEngine.loadModule(JsiiEngine.java:185)
at software.amazon.jsii.JsiiEngine.createNewObject(JsiiEngine.java:608)
at software.amazon.awscdk.App.(App.java:86)
at cz.acrobits.cdk.conferencing_chime.CdkApp.main(CdkApp.java:40)

Expected Behavior

It is possible to create an instance of App.class

Current Behavior

It is not possible to create an instance of App.class

Reproduction Steps

Take Windows 10 or 11. Install all updates. Init a brand new project in java using cli and run it

Possible Solution

It looks like some permission issue so I would try to run the node.js command from java under admin user as a first steo to verify

Additional Information/Context

No response

CDK CLI Version

2.88.0, 2.89.0

Framework Version

2.89.0

Node.js Version

18.17.0 , 20.5.0

OS

Windows 10,11

Language

Java

Language Version

java 11

Other information

No response

[pahud]

This sounds like related to Windows update. I am making it a p2 here before we have more insights. Please help us prioritize with upvotes.

[Scrat94]

I am also facing this issue within a python cdk project.
The strange thing I observed, in one of my old python project with a virtual environment, it is still working fine, but as soon as I reinstall the virutal environemtn (still with all the same version, e.g. aws-cdk-lib 2.42.1), its causing the exact same error as above. So I am not sure whether this is a related to a windows update or not.

This is my error:

jsii.errors.JavaScriptError: 
  Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, symlink 'C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\AWS\jsii\package-cache\constructs\10.2.69\999a045971105d00548e478f26ed34c78a3f59c8d2761e5b10ff99bb96d18043' -> 'C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-kernel-wBjjZK\node_modules\constructs'
      at symlinkSync (node:fs:1816:3)
      at link (C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpmt7e1jwn\lib\program.js:10445:38)
      at extractViaCache (C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpmt7e1jwn\lib\program.js:11493:29)
      at Object.extract (C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpmt7e1jwn\lib\program.js:11450:81)
      at C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpmt7e1jwn\lib\program.js:9916:127
      at Kernel._Kernel_debugTime (C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpmt7e1jwn\lib\program.js:10365:24)
      at Kernel._Kernel_load (C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpmt7e1jwn\lib\program.js:9916:105)
      at C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpmt7e1jwn\lib\program.js:9653:181
      at Kernel._Kernel_debugTime (C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpmt7e1jwn\lib\program.js:10365:24)
      at Kernel.load (C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpmt7e1jwn\lib\program.js:9653:96)

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Temp\test-project\app.py", line 2, in <module>
    import aws_cdk as cdk
  File "C:\Temp\test-project\.venv\lib\site-packages\aws_cdk\__init__.py", line 1132, in <module>
    from ._jsii import *
  File "C:\Temp\test-project\.venv\lib\site-packages\aws_cdk\_jsii\__init__.py", line 13, in <module>
    import constructs._jsii
  File "C:\Temp\test-project\.venv\lib\site-packages\constructs\__init__.py", line 43, in <module>
    from ._jsii import *
  File "C:\Temp\test-project\.venv\lib\site-packages\constructs\_jsii\__init__.py", line 13, in <module>
    __jsii_assembly__ = jsii.JSIIAssembly.load(
  File "C:\Temp\test-project\.venv\lib\site-packages\jsii\_runtime.py", line 55, in load
    _kernel.load(assembly.name, assembly.version, os.fspath(assembly_path))
  File "C:\Temp\test-project\.venv\lib\site-packages\jsii\_kernel\__init__.py", line 299, in load
    self.provider.load(LoadRequest(name=name, version=version, tarball=tarball))
  File "C:\Temp\test-project\.venv\lib\site-packages\jsii\_kernel\providers\process.py", line 354, in load
    return self._process.send(request, LoadResponse)
  File "C:\Temp\test-project\.venv\lib\site-packages\jsii\_kernel\providers\process.py", line 342, in send
    raise RuntimeError(resp.error) from JavaScriptError(resp.stack)
RuntimeError: EPERM: operation not permitted, symlink 'C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\AWS\jsii\package-cache\constructs\10.2.69\999a045971105d00548e478f26ed34c78a3f59c8d2761e5b10ff99bb96d18043' -> 'C:\Users\anonymous\AppData\Local\Temp\jsii-kernel-wBjjZK\node_modules\constructs'

[heuristics222]

Same problem here. Started happening to me when I updated to aws-cdk-lib 2.90.0 so I played around with the package versions a bit.

With the following dependencies, cdk commands run successfully

aws-cdk-lib==2.89.0
jsii==1.85.0

and with the next version, the above symlink error occurs (aws-cdk-lib 2.90.0 requires minimally jsii 1.86.0)

aws-cdk-lib==2.90.0
jsii==1.86.0

I also tried the following, which failed. So the issue is clearly with jsii 1.86.0, which makes sense from the call stack.

aws-cdk-lib==2.89.0
jsii==1.86.0

1.86.1 also fails.

In addition to downgrading your aws-cdk-lib/jsii versions, running cdk commands in adminstrator mode also seems to work as a workaround.

[hastarin]

Same issue with dotnet CDK.

[fsvoboda-acro]

It's mentioned in aws/jsii#4208 with some workaround.

[sagajain]

what is the solutions of above issue , same issue I am facing

[fsvoboda-acro]

what is the solutions of above issue , same issue I am facing

THIS

[ldecaro]

CDK 2.88.0 running on Windows 11. Can't instantiate App as described above.
Running $env:JSII_RUNTIME_PACKAGE_CACHE="disabled" resolved the issue.

[sagajain]

CDK 2.88.0 running on Windows 11. Can't instantiate App as described above. Running $env:JSII_RUNTIME_PACKAGE_CACHE="disabled" resolved the issue.

Hi i am using windows10 and above solutions i did not get , i dont have administrator access

[rix0rrr]

Fix pending here: aws/jsii#4212

[danarlee]

Same issue with Python CDK; however using the workaround above worked.
Created environment variable.
JSII_RUNTIME_PACKAGE_CACHE to "disabled".

[hastarin]

Looks like the fix mentioned by @rix0rrr has now been released. https://github.com/aws/jsii/releases/tag/v1.87.0

[rix0rrr]

Fix imported here, next release will have it: #26734

[github-actions]

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