CLI prints "null" and exits with error code 1

[pdcastro]

This error is rare but can happen with any balena CLI command, any platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) and any installation type (npm dev, npm production, standalone zip, executable installer). The most recent example was issue #1331, and it is closely related to issue #1193.

It happens because of an issue / bug in the Sentry library, which is supposed to intercept errors and report them to Balena via the sentry.io platform. It seems that the Sentry library (at least the old version being used) cannot cope with certain types of errors, and then itself fails and "masks" the underlying error, resulting in "null" being printed to the console:

$ balena login
null

That's a rather frustrating error, difficult to debug. A workaround (to reveal the underlying error) is to sidestep the Sentry library by commenting out (//) the setupRaven() line in the build/app-common.js file, so that it looks as follows:

    // setupRaven();

If the CLI was installed with the executable (native) installers, the file is located at:

OS	File
Windows	C:\Program Files\balena-cli\client\build\app-common.js
macOS	/usr/local/lib/balena-cli/build/app-common.js

With the "npm installation", it depends on where Node.js was installed and whether nvm was used, but typical locations are:

OS	File
Linux	/usr/local/lib/node_modules/balena-cli/build/app-common.js
nvm	~/.nvm/versions/node/vX.Y.Z/lib/node_modules/balena-cli/build/app-common.js

This workaround is not possible in the standalone zip packages, as the source code is bundled in the executable binary.

The first step towards a proper fix is probably to update the Sentry library being used by the CLI (#1523). Unfortunately it's not just a matter of updating a dependency version, because Sentry did a re-writing of the public API.

[pdcastro]

Draft pull request: #1295

[balena-ci]

[pdcastro] This issue has attached support thread https://jel.ly.fish/#/support-thread~17dc1bb6-a481-4b68-aa64-e961ffd4b794

[pdcastro]

"hello" support conversation: https://app.frontapp.com/open/cnv_1yv269v

[pdcastro]

On macOS, in order to edit the /usr/local/lib/balena-cli/build/app-common.js file, you can use the nano command-line text editor. Open a terminal prompt and run:

$ sudo nano /usr/local/lib/balena-cli/build/app-common.js
Password:

It will prompt you for the computer login password because the file is owned by the root user. The window will look something like the following screenshot. Use the arrow keys to navigate towards the end of the file, and type // before setupRaven(); (in the globalInit() function) as shown in the screenshot. Then type Ctrl-O to save the file, and Ctrl-X to exit.

[alsmith]

I ran into this problem and after commenting out the setupRaven() call, it emerged that the problem was due to $HOME/.balena being owned by root. It was empty anyway so I got rid of it, uncommented setupRaven() again and everything works now.

[HAKASHUN]

Though I am using an older version of cli (resin-cli@8.1.0), I encountered the same error.

I fixed part of the require('any-promise/register/bluebird') code because an Error is happened in any-promise/loader.js.

balena-cli/lib/app.coffee

Lines 82 to 86 in 8dc4c08

	# Assign bluebird as the global promise library
	# stream-to-promise will produce native promises if not
	# for this module, which could wreak havoc in this
	# bluebird-only codebase.
	require('any-promise/register/bluebird')

// Before
require('any-promise/register/bluebird')

// After
require('any-promise')

The same fixes in app-common.ts may improve it 🤔 .

MyEnvironment
OS	Mac
Node	8.9.4
Cli	resin-cli@8.1.0

[jacobrosenthal]

Mine was

Error: Setting not found: apiUrl

Then when digging around I found an empty ~/.balenarc.yml file which when deleted got me working again

[balena-ci]

[pdcastro] This issue has attached support thread https://jel.ly.fish/#/49b14f58-7f34-40c4-95c2-f0596a1377ab

[balena-ci]

[pdcastro] This issue has attached support thread https://jel.ly.fish/#/55a77735-863d-4e2f-90cc-034c92e05c25

[pdcastro]

This issue should be fixed in CLI release 11.28.14 (releases). If you still come across this issue ("prints null and exits") with CLI v11.28.14 or later, please leave a comment and we can reopen this issue (or you are also welcome to create a new issue).

If you needed/wanted to get around the issue by commenting out the setupRaven() line (as shown in a screenshot above) with newer CLI releases (11.28.14 and later), please note that that line was replaced with await setupSentry() (https://github.com/balena-io/balena-cli/blob/v11.28.14/lib/app-common.ts#L245), so the commented out line in newer releases would look like:

export async function globalInit() {
	// await setupSentry();
	...