Angular CLI: Cannot read property 'config' of null

Question

Recently upgraded my application from Angular 2.3.0 to Angular 4.0.3. In the process also upgraded angular-cli. If project cloned to a new directory, it is throwing:

Cannot read property 'config' of null TypeError: Cannot read property 'config' of null at Class.run (/Users/hyadav/Documents/projects/web-app/node_modules/@angular/cli/tasks/build.js:16:56) at Class.run (/Users/hyadav/Documents/projects/web-app/node_modules/@angular/cli/commands/build.js:143:26) at Class. (/Users/hyadav/Documents/projects/web-app/node_modules/@angular/cli/ember-cli/lib/models/command.js:134:17) at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:109:7)

package.json

"scripts": {
    "ng": "ng",
    "start": "ng serve",
    "build": "ng build",
    "test": "ng test",
    "lint": "ng lint",
    "e2e": "ng e2e"
  },
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "@angular/animations": "^4.0.3",
    "@angular/cli": "^1.0.1",
    "@angular/common": "^4.0.3",
    "@angular/compiler": "^4.0.3",
    "@angular/compiler-cli": "^4.0.3",
    "@angular/core": "^4.0.3",
    "@angular/forms": "^4.0.3",
    "@angular/http": "^4.0.3",
    "@angular/material": "^2.0.0-beta.3",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "^4.0.3",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "^4.0.3",
    "@angular/platform-server": "^4.0.3",
    "@angular/router": "^4.0.3",
    "core-js": "^2.4.1",
    "hammerjs": "^2.0.8",
    "rxjs": "^5.2.0",
    "typescript": "^2.2.2",
    "zone.js": "^0.8.4"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@angular/cli": "^1.0.1",
    "@angular/compiler-cli": "^2.4.0",
    "@types/jasmine": "2.5.38",
    "@types/node": "~6.0.60",
    "codelyzer": "~2.0.0",
    "jasmine-core": "~2.5.2",
    "jasmine-spec-reporter": "~3.2.0",
    "karma": "~1.4.1",
    "karma-chrome-launcher": "~2.0.0",
    "karma-cli": "~1.0.1",
    "karma-coverage-istanbul-reporter": "^0.2.0",
    "karma-jasmine": "~1.1.0",
    "karma-jasmine-html-reporter": "^0.2.2",
    "protractor": "~5.1.0",
    "ts-node": "~2.0.0",
    "tslint": "~4.4.2",
    "typescript": "~2.2.2"
 }

Answer 1

This is a working solution until Angular v5 because inside v6, the location of the file changed to angular.json, and changed also the content

Create a new file called .angular-cli.json and insert:

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json",
  "project": {
    "name": "PROJECT_NAME"
  },
  "apps": [
    {
      "root": "src",
      "outDir": "dist",
      "assets": [
        "assets",
        "favicon.ico"
      ],
      "index": "index.html",
      "main": "main.ts",
      "polyfills": "polyfills.ts",
      "test": "test.ts",
      "tsconfig": "tsconfig.app.json",
      "testTsconfig": "tsconfig.spec.json",
      "prefix": "app",
      "styles": [
        "styles.css"
      ],
      "scripts": [],
      "environmentSource": "environments/environment.ts",
      "environments": {
        "dev": "environments/environment.ts",
        "prod": "environments/environment.prod.ts"
      }
    }
  ],
  "e2e": {
    "protractor": {
      "config": "./protractor.conf.js"
    }
  },
  "lint": [
    {
      "project": "src/tsconfig.app.json"
    },
    {
      "project": "src/tsconfig.spec.json"
    },
    {
      "project": "e2e/tsconfig.e2e.json"
    }
  ],
  "test": {
    "karma": {
      "config": "./karma.conf.js"
    }
  },
  "defaults": {
    "styleExt": "css",
    "component": {}
  }
}

You will also find a copy of this json if you create a new project from angular-cli.