CLI: stack name is not checked before delete confirmation

[mrgum]

Describe the bug

if you cdk destroy a stack that does not exist (say you are accidentally in the directory) cdk says

Are you sure you want to delete: (y/n)?
and does nothing when you say y

Regression Issue

• Select this option if this issue appears to be a regression.

Last Known Working CDK Version

No response

Expected Behavior

cdk to respond
No stacks match the name(s) whatever/you/asked/for
like cdk synth does

Current Behavior

Are you sure you want to delete: (y/n)?

Reproduction Steps

cdk destroy made/of/a/nonexistent/stack

Possible Solution

No response

Additional Information/Context

No response

CDK CLI Version

2.173.1 (build 4eac959)

Framework Version

No response

Node.js Version

v22.11.0

OS

Mac

Language

Python

Language Version

3.13

Other information

I don't think the language is relevant

[khushail]

Hi @mrgum , thanks for reporting this.

Yes, I can confirm that while deleting the deployed stack with command cdk destroy, if you mention some other stack (which does not exist) being in the directory where you just deployed stack, there should be some confirmation check or warning message with the name of the stack .

Current situation -

the below mentioned stack does not exist yet the cdk destroy command simply exits and does not print anything

khushail@a07817b31bf3 testStack % cdk destroy abteststack
Are you sure you want to delete:  (y/n)? y

while deleting the one which exists -

khushail@a07817b31bf3 testStack % cdk destroy TestStackStack
Are you sure you want to delete: TestStackStack (y/n)? y
TestStackStack: destroying... [1/1]

 ✅  TestStackStack: destroyed

Looking at the code for destroy , looks like there is no check for stackname

https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/blob/fb030d6b2a6ebd1a673b13c830389c4fc65c4dda/packages/aws-cdk/lib/cdk-toolkit.ts#L798C1-L828C8

IMO, it might include a region wide search in case , cdk destroy nonExistentStack will check if the mentioned stack name exists in the region, which might be time taking.

This would be good to have feature. Marking it as P3 to keep it open for community contribution. Requesting community upvotes to get the proper traction.

[nmussy]

IMO, it might include a region wide search in case , cdk destroy nonExistentStack will check if the mentioned stack name exists in the region, which might be time taking.

I don't know how I feel about cdk destroy being able to destroy stacks that are "outside its scope", either stacks created in other CDK apps or regular CloudFormation stacks, but I guess that's the current behavior:

$ aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name TestStack --template-body file://template.json
$ cdk init --language=typescript

$ cdk destroy TestStack
Are you sure you want to delete: TestStack (y/n)? y
TestStack: destroying... [1/1]

 ✅  TestStack: destroyed

More than the ability to lookup valid stacks for a given region, I think it would be better to evaluate the list of stacks in the current app and give a warning that they might not belong to this application before the confirmation. I understand that there might be legitimate cases where you would want to cdk destroy an unknown stack, say where an application had that given stack but was since removed from the code base.

[khushail]

@nmussy , I agree with you , deleting stacks outside the scope might pose a bigger risk, rather than checking stacks created in current directory/app sounds better.

[go-to-k]

I submitted a PR for an issue like this before, but there was a regression in other cli-integ tests and it was reverted. I'm posting it here in case it might be of some help.

issue: #27179

PR: #27921

[go-to-k]

Apparently, the revert of the above PR was due to a cause unrelated to that PR. That has been corrected in this PR (see: https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/blob/v2.173.1/packages/@aws-cdk-testing/cli-integ/tests/cli-integ-tests/cli.integtest.ts#L286-L291).
Therefore, I will submit the same PR again. This is a safe way to warn if the specified stacks don't belong to the app without searching the out-of-scope stack.

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