Google Cloud appcfg.cmd can't deploy because can't find appengine-web.xml

Question

I'm just trying to get the basic hello world project built and deployed by following the instructions on https://console.developers.google.com/start/appengine. I got through all the steps but the last one, Step 6, where I got this error:

D:\google-app-engine\appengine-try-java>appcfg.cmd -A aqueous-flames-561 update
target\appengine-try-java
Reading application configuration data...
Apr 24, 2014 4:27:39 PM com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader
readAppEngineWebXml
SEVERE: Received exception processing target/appengine-try-java\WEB-INF/appengin
e-web.xml
com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineConfigException: Could not locate D:
\google-app-engine\appengine-try-java\target\appengine-try-java\WEB-INF\appengin
e-web.xml
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader.getInputStre
am(AppEngineWebXmlReader.java:140)
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader.readAppEngin
eWebXml(AppEngineWebXmlReader.java:75)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.admin.Application.<init>(Application.java:
185)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.admin.Application.readApplication(Applicat
ion.java:322)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.admin.AppCfg.readWar(AppCfg.java:280)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.admin.AppCfg.readApplication(AppCfg.java:2
71)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.admin.AppCfg.<init>(AppCfg.java:209)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.admin.AppCfg.<init>(AppCfg.java:121)
        at com.google.appengine.tools.admin.AppCfg.main(AppCfg.java:117)
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: target\appengine-try-java\WEB-INF\appe
ngine-web.xml (The system cannot find the file specified)
        at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
        at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineWebXmlReader.getInputStre
am(AppEngineWebXmlReader.java:137)
        ... 8 more

Bad configuration: Could not locate D:\google-app-engine\appengine-try-java\targ
et\appengine-try-java\WEB-INF\appengine-web.xml
  Caused by: target\appengine-try-java\WEB-INF\appengine-web.xml (The system can
not find the file specified)
Please see the logs [C:\Users\MICHAE~1\AppData\Local\Temp\appcfg7867248686279117
668.log] for further information.

D:\google-app-engine\appengine-try-java>

I was able to successfully complete Step 5, Run Your App Locally (https://console.developers.google.com/start/appengine). So I’m not sure how I can run locally if I indeed am missing an appengine-web.xml file.

Answer 1

Jordan Fish of Google Cloud Platform Support said that Step 6 of https://console.developers.google.com/start/appengine contains a mistake which he said will be fixed at some point. The correct command is as follows (note the ending which has -1.0):

appcfg.cmd -A aqueous-flames-561 update target\appengine-try-java-1.0