Truffle compile fails: could not find file from any sources

Question

I'm following the steps of this tutorial. I created a simple contract, TodoList.sol

pragma solidity ^0.5.0;

contract TodoList {
    uint public taskCount = 0;
}

Then I run truffle compile and get this error message

Error: Could not find .../todolist/contracts/TodoList.sol from any sources
    at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/build/webpack:/packages/truffle-resolver/index.js:76:1
    at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/build/webpack:/~/async/internal/onlyOnce.js:12:1
    at next (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/build/webpack:/~/async/whilst.js:68:1)
    at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/build/webpack:/packages/truffle-resolver/index.js:64:1
    at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/build/webpack:/packages/truffle-resolver/fs.js:85:1
    at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/build/webpack:/~/async/internal/once.js:12:1
    at replenish (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/build/webpack:/~/async/internal/eachOfLimit.js:61:1)
    at iterateeCallback (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/build/webpack:/~/async/internal/eachOfLimit.js:50:1)
    at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/build/webpack:/~/async/internal/onlyOnce.js:12:1
    at ReadFileContext.callback (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/truffle/build/webpack:/packages/truffle-resolver/fs.js:81:1)
    at FSReqCallback.readFileAfterOpen [as oncomplete] (fs.js:242:13)
Truffle v5.0.2 (core: 5.0.2)
Node v11.12.0

The file is there. If I remove that file, truffle compiles the Migrations.sol automatically generated by truffle init without errors.

When I edit TodoList.sol with VSCode and try to compile it with the Solidity plugin, it doesn't complain, but it doesn't generate any output in the build folder.

Answer 1

The problem was I edited the file in VSCode, but autosave was turned off. So this is the error message you get if you have an empty file in the contracts directory.

Answer 2

Had the same problem and as suggested above, i just went into sublime (source code editor) and saved the work and then "sudo truffle compile" worked.