feat(cli): add option to ignore no stacks

packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/cxapp/cloud-assembly.ts

@@ -38,9 +38,16 @@ export interface SelectStacksOptions {
   extend?: ExtendedStackSelection;
 
   /**
-   * The behavior if if no selectors are privided.
+   * The behavior if if no selectors are provided.
    */
   defaultBehavior: DefaultSelection;
+
+  /**
+   * Ignore the error message if the app contains no stacks.
+   *
+   * @default false
+   */
+  ignoreNoStacks?: boolean;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -99,7 +106,7 @@ export class CloudAssembly {
     const allTopLevel = selector.allTopLevel ?? false;
     const patterns = sanitizePatterns(selector.patterns);
 
-    if (stacks.length === 0) {
+    if (stacks.length === 0 && !options.ignoreNoStacks) {
       throw new Error('This app contains no stacks');
     }
 

packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deploy-stack.ts

@@ -205,6 +205,13 @@ export interface DeployStackOptions {
    * @default true To remain backward compatible.
    */
   readonly assetParallelism?: boolean;
+
+  /**
+   * Ignore the error message if the app contains no stacks.
+   *
+   * @default false
+   */
+  ignoreNoStacks?: boolean;
 }
 
 export type DeploymentMethod =

packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/deployments.ts

@@ -198,6 +198,13 @@ export interface DeployStackOptions {
    * @default true To remain backward compatible.
    */
   readonly assetParallelism?: boolean;
+
+  /**
+   * Ignore the error message if the app contains no stacks.
+   *
+   * @default false
+   */
+  ignoreNoStacks?: boolean;
 }
 
 interface AssetOptions {

packages/aws-cdk/lib/cdk-toolkit.ts

@@ -175,7 +175,8 @@ export class CdkToolkit {
     }
 
     const startSynthTime = new Date().getTime();
-    const stackCollection = await this.selectStacksForDeploy(options.selector, options.exclusively, options.cacheCloudAssembly);
+    // eslint-disable-next-line max-len
+    const stackCollection = await this.selectStacksForDeploy(options.selector, options.exclusively, options.cacheCloudAssembly, options.ignoreNoStacks);
     const elapsedSynthTime = new Date().getTime() - startSynthTime;
     print('\n✨  Synthesis time: %ss\n', formatTime(elapsedSynthTime));
 
@@ -305,6 +306,7 @@ export class CdkToolkit {
           hotswap: options.hotswap,
           extraUserAgent: options.extraUserAgent,
           assetParallelism: options.assetParallelism,
+          ignoreNoStacks: options.ignoreNoStacks,
         });
 
         const message = result.noOp
@@ -479,7 +481,7 @@ export class CdkToolkit {
   }
 
   public async import(options: ImportOptions) {
-    const stacks = await this.selectStacksForDeploy(options.selector, true, true);
+    const stacks = await this.selectStacksForDeploy(options.selector, true, true, false);
 
     if (stacks.stackCount > 1) {
       throw new Error(`Stack selection is ambiguous, please choose a specific stack for import [${stacks.stackArtifacts.map(x => x.id).join(', ')}]`);
@@ -729,11 +731,13 @@ export class CdkToolkit {
     return stacks;
   }
 
-  private async selectStacksForDeploy(selector: StackSelector, exclusively?: boolean, cacheCloudAssembly?: boolean): Promise<StackCollection> {
+  // eslint-disable-next-line max-len
+  private async selectStacksForDeploy(selector: StackSelector, exclusively?: boolean, cacheCloudAssembly?: boolean, ignoreNoStacks?: boolean): Promise<StackCollection> {
     const assembly = await this.assembly(cacheCloudAssembly);
     const stacks = await assembly.selectStacks(selector, {
       extend: exclusively ? ExtendedStackSelection.None : ExtendedStackSelection.Upstream,
       defaultBehavior: DefaultSelection.OnlySingle,
+      ignoreNoStacks,
     });
 
     this.validateStacksSelected(stacks, selector.patterns);
@@ -1134,6 +1138,13 @@ export interface DeployOptions extends CfnDeployOptions, WatchOptions {
    * @default AssetBuildTime.ALL_BEFORE_DEPLOY
    */
   readonly assetBuildTime?: AssetBuildTime;
+
+  /**
+   * Ignore the error message if the app contains no stacks.
+   *
+   * @default false
+   */
+  readonly ignoreNoStacks?: boolean;
 }
 
 export interface ImportOptions extends CfnDeployOptions {

packages/aws-cdk/lib/cli.ts

@@ -172,7 +172,8 @@ async function parseCommandLineArguments(args: string[]) {
       })
       .option('concurrency', { type: 'number', desc: 'Maximum number of simultaneous deployments (dependency permitting) to execute.', default: 1, requiresArg: true })
       .option('asset-parallelism', { type: 'boolean', desc: 'Whether to build/publish assets in parallel' })
-      .option('asset-prebuild', { type: 'boolean', desc: 'Whether to build all assets before deploying the first stack (useful for failing Docker builds)', default: true }),
+      .option('asset-prebuild', { type: 'boolean', desc: 'Whether to build all assets before deploying the first stack (useful for failing Docker builds)', default: true })
+      .option('ignore-no-stacks', { type: 'boolean', desc: 'Ignore the error message if the app contains no stacks', default: false }),
     )
     .command('import [STACK]', 'Import existing resource(s) into the given STACK', (yargs: Argv) => yargs
       .option('execute', { type: 'boolean', desc: 'Whether to execute ChangeSet (--no-execute will NOT execute the ChangeSet)', default: true })
@@ -583,6 +584,7 @@ export async function exec(args: string[], synthesizer?: Synthesizer): Promise<n
           concurrency: args.concurrency,
           assetParallelism: configuration.settings.get(['assetParallelism']),
           assetBuildTime: configuration.settings.get(['assetPrebuild']) ? AssetBuildTime.ALL_BEFORE_DEPLOY : AssetBuildTime.JUST_IN_TIME,
+          ignoreNoStacks: args.ignoreNoStacks,
         });
 
       case 'import':

packages/aws-cdk/lib/settings.ts

@@ -292,6 +292,7 @@ export class Settings {
       notices: argv.notices,
       assetParallelism: argv['asset-parallelism'],
       assetPrebuild: argv['asset-prebuild'],
+      ignoreNoStacks: argv['ignore-no-stacks'],
     });
   }
 

packages/aws-cdk/test/api/cloud-assembly.test.ts

@@ -182,6 +182,14 @@ async function testCloudAssembly({ env }: { env?: string, versionReporting?: boo
   return cloudExec.synthesize();
 }
 
+async function testCloudAssemblyNoStacks() {
+  const cloudExec = new MockCloudExecutable({
+    stacks: [],
+  });
+
+  return cloudExec.synthesize();
+}
+
 async function testNestedCloudAssembly({ env }: { env?: string, versionReporting?: boolean } = {}) {
   const cloudExec = new MockCloudExecutable({
     stacks: [{