this.node.addError does not cause cdk diff to fail

[mipearson]

❓ General Issue

Not sure if this is a bug or a feature.

cdk diff <stackname> will succeed on a stack with errors, even though a cdk deploy or cdk synth will fail. The cdk diff does not show any indication of an error.

If this is intention it might be worth signposting it somehow.

Environment

• CDK CLI Version: Unknown command: version (but it's 1.14.0 (build 261a1bf) if I run cdk --version instead)
• OS: OSX Mojave
• Language: Typescript, but suspect all as it's within the CDK CLI

[nmussy]

The errors will be thrown in the processMetadata method:

aws-cdk/packages/aws-cdk/lib/api/cxapp/stacks.ts

Lines 315 to 317 in ba38b76

	if (errors && !this.props.ignoreErrors) {
	throw new Error('Found errors');
	}

Which is only called for the synth and deploy commands, like you've noticed:

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

Line 86 in ba38b76

this.appStacks.processMetadata(stacks);

aws-cdk/packages/aws-cdk/bin/cdk.ts

Line 297 in 4f765b2

appStacks.processMetadata(stacks);

Even if it was intended for diff not to throw, not seeing any warning or error until deployment is a little weird.

[shivlaks]

fixed by #5284