AWS CodeDeploy - "Start of list found where not expected"

Question

I am trying to deploy on ECS using AWS CodePipeline with AWS CodeDeploy and I see the following error message:

The buildspec.yml is

version: 0.2

phases:
  pre_build:
    commands:
      - echo Logging in to Amazon ECR...
      - $(aws ecr get-login --no-include-email --region $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION)
  build:
    commands:
      - mvn clean install
      - echo Build started on `date`
      - echo Building the Docker image...
      - docker build -t $IMAGE_REPO_NAME:$IMAGE_TAG .
      - docker tag $IMAGE_REPO_NAME:$IMAGE_TAG $AWS_ACCOUNT_ID.dkr.ecr.$AWS_DEFAULT_REGION.amazonaws.com/$IMAGE_REPO_NAME:$IMAGE_TAG
  post_build:
    commands:
      - echo Build completed on `date`
      - echo Pushing the Docker image...
      - docker push $AWS_ACCOUNT_ID.dkr.ecr.$AWS_DEFAULT_REGION.amazonaws.com/$IMAGE_REPO_NAME:$IMAGE_TAG
      - printf '[{"name":"totd-api","imageUri":"%s"}]' $AWS_ACCOUNT_ID.dkr.ecr.$AWS_DEFAULT_REGION.amazonaws.com/$IMAGE_REPO_NAME:$IMAGE_TAG > imageDetail.json

artifacts:
  files:
    - imageDetail.json
    - appspec.yaml

and the appspec.yaml is

version: 0.0
Resources:
  - TargetService:
      Type: AWS::ECS::Service
      Properties:
        TaskDefinition: "arn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:<accountID>:task-definition/<task>:<tag>"
        LoadBalancerInfo:
          ContainerName: "totd-api"
          ContainerPort: 80

I am confused by the misleading error message, thanks!

Answer 1

Since you want to do blue/green deployment and use codepipeline, you have incorrect file definitions. From docs:

Amazon ECS standard deployments require an imagedefinitions.json file as an input to the deploy action.

Amazon ECS Blue/Green deployments require an imageDetail.json file as an input to the deploy action.

Also your appspec.yaml also needs to be different. Example from here:

version: 0.0
Resources:
  - TargetService:
      Type: AWS::ECS::Service
      Properties:
        TaskDefinition: <TASK_DEFINITION>
        LoadBalancerInfo:
          ContainerName: "sample-website"
          ContainerPort: 80

TASK_DEFINITION is important and must be in the file.