Jenkins cannot create cordova platforms

Question

I have a jenkins job that is supposed to create a cordova app but it's failing some reason that I can't quite identify. The jenkins job simply does this:

cordova platform add android
cordova prepare android
cordova build android --debug --verbose

The first command (cordova platform add android) is resulting in the following error:

ENOENT: no such file or directory, mkdir 'platforms/android/app/src/main'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, mkdir 'platforms/android/app/src/main'
    at Object.mkdirSync (fs.js:738:3)
    at Object.module.exports.makeDirSync (/Users/me/Documents/Jenkins/sharedspace/apps/my-app/cordova/node_modules/fs-extra/lib/mkdirs/make-dir.js:23:13)
    at /Users/me/Documents/Jenkins/sharedspace/apps/my-app/cordova/node_modules/cordova-android/lib/create.js:231:16

+ /Users/me/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.2/bin/cordova prepare android
(node:23901) ExperimentalWarning: The fs.promises API is experimental
Discovered platform "android". Adding it to the project
EEXIST: file already exists, mkdir '/Users/me/Documents/Jenkins/sharedspace/apps/my-app/cordova/platforms'

+ /Users/me/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.2/bin/cordova build android --debug --verbose
(node:23902) ExperimentalWarning: The fs.promises API is experimental
No platforms added to this project. Please use `cordova platform add <platform>`.
CordovaError: No platforms added to this project. Please use `cordova platform add <platform>`.
    at Object.preProcessOptions (/Users/me/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.2/lib/node_modules/cordova/node_modules/cordova-lib/src/cordova/util.js:275:15)
    at /Users/me/.nvm/versions/node/v16.13.2/lib/node_modules/cordova/node_modules/cordova-lib/src/cordova/build.js:29:31
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:68:7)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:745:11)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:236:19)
    at bootstrapNodeJSCore (internal/bootstrap/node.js:560:3)

Build step 'Execute shell' marked build as failure

When I look inside the platforms directory on the jenkins box it is empty. It is able to create the platforms folder itself, just nothing else under. It doesn't seem to be a permission issue as far as I can tell. If I ssh into the box as the same user that jenkins in using I can run the cordova commands fine and everything works.

Furthermore, if I add the platform manually by sshing into the box and then let jenkins take over after the android folder already exists, the job works fine. So I guess for some reason it's not able to add the android project.

If it helps, this is what cordova requirements gives:

cordova requirements

Requirements check results for android:
Java JDK: installed 1.8.0
Android SDK: installed true
Android target: installed android-30,android-29,android-28
Gradle: installed /usr/local/Cellar/gradle/7.3.3/bin/gradle

Answer 1

Okay, I finally figured this SOB out! After taking a few weeks off and coming back to this I noticed that there is a setting in the job config called "Shared Workspace" and I had it set to the value (). I don't know what that means, but it had the effect of putting the code for this project in the

/Users/me/Documents/Jenkins/sharedspace

folder, which apparently was causing problems with cordova. Once I set the Shared Workspace value to NONE, it moved the project to the

/Users/trident/Documents/Jenkins/workspace/my-app

folder which is more what I would expect. After that, lo and behold, everything works.