Amplify-cli: If you publish a lambda using a local npm package, amplify-cli becomes unusable

[zjullion]

Describe the bug
I made a mistake today and published a lambda referencing a local package:

"dependencies": {
    "aws-sdk": "^2.413.0",
    "axios": "^0.18.0",
    "my-local-package": "file:~/src/my-local-package",
}

Of course, the lambda doesn't execute properly (very much expected, and very much my fault). However, my local amplify-cli has now become completely unusable. Almost every command (even amplify status) results in the following error:

error: uncaughtException: ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '/Users/zach/src/project-name/amplify/.temp/#current-cloud-backend/function/function-name/src/node_modules/my-local-package'

The following did not solve this problem:

1. Deleted the lambda function
2. Deleted the stack associated with the lambda function

Furthermore, anyone who checks out my env will also have their local amplify-cli end up in a permanently broken state.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
Follow the steps outlined in the description.

Expected behavior
I think there's two pieces of unexpected behaviour here:

1. If possible, it would be great if amplify-cli refused to publish lambdas that referenced local node packages (very difficult, I realize)
2. More practically, amplify-cli shouldn't blow up when a node package is missing in the cloud.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
• Version 1.1.6

[zjullion]

Okay, so I've found a terrible, awful solution to this problem:

1. Download #current-cloud-backend.zip from the deployment (not the hosting) bucket
2. Extract the zip, navigate to function/function-name/src/node_modules and replace the my-local-package shortcut with an empty folder
3. Package your changes and upload them to the deployment bucket, overwriting the old #current-cloud-backend.zip

[yuth]

@zjullion thank you for reporting this. I have updated the code not to include any content from functions node_modules when backing up the current_cloud_backend. This will help for new pushes, but won't be able to fix it for already pushed backend.

[michaelaltmann]

What is the recommended way to use locally created npm packages? npm link doesn't work because the zip file for the lambda doesn't follow the symlinks created by npm link.