(cli): `cdk ls` should work even when `cdk deploy` is in progress

[moltar]

Describe the feature

I think cdk ls should work, even when there's already a deployment in progress.

Use Case

It's pretty typical to work across tabs and sometimes I want to ls while another process is already busy doing a deploy.

Proposed Solution

When running ls change --output value to some /tmp/* dir.

Other Information

Get an error when doing an ls while deploy is running:

Other CLIs (PID=81799) are currently reading from cdk.out. Invoke the CLI in sequence, or use '--output' to synth into different directories.

Acknowledgements

• I may be able to implement this feature request
• This feature might incur a breaking change

CDK version used

2.171.0

Environment details (OS name and version, etc.)

macOS

[khushail]

Hi @moltar , thanks for reaching out. AFAIK, cdk ls lists out the stacks which are deployed and when the deployment is going on, it might be incomplete information since you want to see the list in between of the process which is running. Same holds true in case of multiple stacks being deployed with cdk deploy.

I am not really sure if implementing this would be good idea as IMO, it would be better to wait and see complete information than half cooked resources.

cc: @ashishdhingra

[moltar]

ls most definitely doesn't list deployed stacks because it works without credentials and even offline.

It does synthesize everything thought, which is why it wants to use outdir. And which is why it fails.