Created a pipeline using AWS copilot, original push worked but when I make changes to code and push them to github they don't show up

Question

would appreciate any help with this:

I've followed the guide for AWS copilot here: https://aws.github.io/copilot-cli/docs/getting-started/first-app-tutorial/ and then the guide for creating a pipeline and connecting it to github here: https://aws.github.io/copilot-cli/docs/concepts/pipelines/ . That all appears to have worked and I can view the react app I'm working on at the url indicated in aws.

My problem is that when I make changes to my code and then push it to the tracked github branch, the changes don't appear when viewing the app at the url. However, when I make the push to github, the pipeline does register that a change has occured. It indicates that a change has been made and goes through the flow of creating a new build. But whatever I try, the changes don't seem to actually show up.

I assume that I'm missing something simple here, and that for some reason, docker is building the app based on the original code. But I can't figure out why that would be. Maybe something is weird with my DockerFile?

My docker file looks like this:

FROM node:16.14
WORKDIR /app
ENV PATH /app/node_modules/.bin:$PATH
COPY package.json ./
COPY package-lock.json ./
RUN npm i
COPY . ./
CMD ["npm", "run", "server"]

My understanding of how this should work, is that I push up new code to github, that is sent to the aws pipeline and a new image is generated based on that code, which is then used to create a container that is hosted on ECS. But clearly I am missing something.

copilot deploy does work. I'm unsure if

1. the problem is that my pipeline is successfully building (as it does not throw an error in the console) and then just not hosting it at the same url as copilot deploy. Or
2. the pipeline is hitting an error that just doesn't show up in the pipeline console. Digging into the logs I find this:

echo "Cloudformation stack and config files were not generated. Please check build logs to see if there was a manifest validation error." 1>&2;

Which seems to point towards the second option. Any suggestions on how resolve whatever it going on in the container if that is the problem?

The error suggests that I check build logs but these are the build logs. Are there more granular build logs I can examine?

Answer 1

When running containers in ECS, unless your container is already crashing because of an error, it often won't pick up code changes from your new image unless you force a new deployment. You can do this from the command line using the AWS CLI with the following:

aws ecs update-service --cluster <cluster_name> --service <service_name> --force-new-deployment --profile <aws_profile_name>

Note that the profile is optional if you're using your default aws cli configuration profile.