Truffle console doesn't work :Unexpected error: Cannot provision contracts while instantiating the console

Question

when I run truffle compile, truffle migrate successfully and then truffle console gives me the following error. strong text

**Enexpected error: Cannot provision contracts while instantiating the console.
Error: Cannot parse .DS_Store: Unexpected token  in JSON at position 0
    at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/lib/repl.js:69:27
    at tryToString (fs.js:447:3)
    at FSReqWrap.readFileAfterClose [as oncomplete] (fs.js:434:12)
truffle(development)> TypeError: Cannot read property 'forEach' of undefined
    at TruffleInterpreter.resetContractsInConsoleContext (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/lib/repl.js:95:17)
    at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/lib/repl.js:44:12**

UPDATE: I solved this problem by pulling a fresh copy of my code from github. And then in my new project directory, I re did npm install. Hope this is helpful

Answer 1

.DS_Store is a hidden file created by macOS operating system. Operating system may automatically create this file under various circumstances. I assume that Truffle has a bug that instead of reading the specific files produced by a truffle compile it tries to read all files in the configured directory.

Truffle tries to read compiler outputted JSON format files. Naturally .DS_Store is not a file of a such a format making truffle to crash.

The correct course of action here is to

• Delete .DS_Store file or makes sure truffle compile output goes into a clean directory. .DS_Store might not be visible in Finder listing, as its a special file, so it is better to delete with from the command line with ls -la and rm commands.

• File a bug against truffle

Answer 2

Do not pull your code again from GH.

Do not reinstall npm.

Delete build/contracts directory. This is not dangerous because it gets recreated during compilation.

Answer 3

thanks for all you input. I fixed the problem by asking the main developers of truffle. The told me to npm install again in the new directory. It works

Answer 4

I had the same problem. I fixed it by deleting all the .DS_Store files in all the truffle directories. Below is what I did, it fixed my problem.

    Mac-sashi:dapp-experiments sashi$ ls -a
    .           app         package-lock.json
    ..          box-img-lg.png      package.json
    .DS_Store       box-img-sm.png      test
    .babelrc        build           truffle-box.json
    .eslintignore       contracts       truffle.js
    .eslintrc       index.html      webpack.config.js
    .gitignore      migrations
    README.md       node_modules
    Mac-sashi:dapp-experiments sashi$ rm app/.DS_Store 
    Mac-sashi:dapp-experiments sashi$ rm .DS_Store 
    Mac-sashi:dapp-experiments sashi$ rm test/.DS_Store 
    Mac-sashi:dapp-experiments sashi$ rm build/.DS_Store 
    Mac-sashi:dapp-experiments sashi$ rm contracts/.DS_Store 
    Mac-sashi:dapp-experiments sashi$ rm migrations/.DS_Store 
    Mac-sashi:dapp-experiments sashi$ rm node_modules/.DS_Store

Edit:I realized that everytime the directory is opened using finder, MacOs will generate .DS_Store file in the directory. So better doo all the operations using terminal.

Answer 5

Execute

find . -name ".DS_Store" -delete

Before running

truffle console

(Problem still exists in Truffle v4.1.6 (core: 4.1.6))