"Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression" in iconv-loader.js

[dandv]

I'm submitting a bug report

Webpack version:
2.1.0-beta.25

Please tell us about your environment:
Linux

Current behavior:

$ node_modules/.bin/webpack index.js bundle.js
Hash: d8a619eb613c35b46760
Version: webpack 2.1.0-beta.25
Time: 868ms
    Asset    Size  Chunks             Chunk Names
bundle.js  656 kB       0  [emitted]  main
  [87] ./index.js 35 bytes {0} [built]
    + 87 hidden modules

WARNING in ./~/encoding/lib/iconv-loader.js
9:12 Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression

ERROR in ./~/iconv-lite/encodings/tables/gb18030-ranges.json
Module parse failed: ./node_modules/iconv-lite/encodings/tables/gb18030-ranges.json Unexpected token (1:9)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type.
| {"uChars":[128,165,169,178,184,216,226,235,238,244,248,251,253,258,276,284,300,325,329,334,364,463,465,467,469,471,473,475,477,506,594,610,712,716,730,930,938,962,970,1026,1104,1106,8209,8215,8218,8222,8231,8241,8244,8246,8252,8365,8452,8454,8458,8471,8482,8556,8570,8596,8602,8713,8720,8722,8726,8731,8737,8740,8742,8748,8751,8760,8766,8777,8781,8787,8802,8808,8816,8854,8858,8870,8896,8979,9322,9372,9548,9588,9616,9622,9634,9652,9662,9672,9676,9680,9702,9735,9738,9793,9795,11906,11909,11913,11917,11928,11944,11947,11951,11956,11960,11964,11979,12284,12292,12312,12319,12330,12351,12436,12447,12535,12543,12586,12842,12850,12964,13200,13215,13218,13253,13263,13267,13270,13384,13428,13727,13839,13851,14617,14703,14801,14816,14964,15183,15471,15585,16471,16736,17208,17325,17330,17374,17623,17997,18018,18212,18218,18301,18318,18760,18811,18814,18820,18823,18844,18848,18872,19576,19620,19738,19887,40870,59244,59336,59367,59413,59417,59423,59431,59437,59443,59452,59460,59478,59493,63789,63866,63894,63976,63986,64016,64018,64021,64025,64034,64037,64042,65074,65093,65107,65112,65127,65132,65375,65510,65536],"gbChars":[0,36,38,45,50,81,89,95,96,100,103,104,105,109,126,133,148,172,175,179,208,306,307,308,309,310,311,312,313,341,428,443,544,545,558,741,742,749,750,805,819,820,7922,7924,7925,7927,7934,7943,7944,7945,7950,8062,8148,8149,8152,8164,8174,8236,8240,8262,8264,8374,8380,8381,8384,8388,8390,8392,8393,8394,8396,8401,8406,8416,8419,8424,8437,8439,8445,8482,8485,8496,8521,8603,8936,8946,9046,9050,9063,9066,9076,9092,9100,9108,9111,9113,9131,9162,9164,9218,9219,11329,11331,11334,11336,11346,11361,11363,11366,11370,11372,11375,11389,11682,11686,11687,11692,11694,11714,11716,11723,11725,11730,11736,11982,11989,12102,12336,12348,12350,12384,12393,12395,12397,12510,12553,12851,12962,12973,13738,13823,13919,13933,14080,14298,14585,14698,15583,15847,16318,16434,16438,16481,16729,17102,17122,17315,17320,17402,17418,17859,17909,17911,17915,17916,17936,17939,17961,18664,18703,18814,18962,19043,33469,33470,33471,33484,33485,33490,33497,33501,33505,33513,33520,33536,33550,37845,37921,37948,38029,38038,38064,38065,38066,38069,38075,38076,38078,39108,39109,39113,39114,39115,39116,39265,39394,189000]}
 @ ./~/iconv-lite/encodings/dbcs-data.js 99:37-76
 @ ./~/iconv-lite/encodings/index.js
 @ ./~/iconv-lite/lib/index.js
 @ ./~/encoding/lib/encoding.js
 @ ./~/node-fetch/lib/body.js
 @ ./~/node-fetch/index.js
 @ ./index.js

• If the current behavior is a bug, please provide the steps to reproduce and if possible a minimal demo of the problem along with a gist/jsbin of your webpack configuration.

npm init
npm install --save node-fetch
npm install --save-dev webpack@2.1.0-beta.25
echo "let fetch = require('node-fetch');" > index.js
node_modules/.bin/webpack index.js bundle.js

• Language: ES6

[Jessidhia]

You seem to be missing { test: /\.json($|\?)/, use: 'json-loader' }. Webpack is failing to parse the .json file because, if interpreted as javascript, it looks like a block (think of there being an if (true) in front of the {); even if it worked, it would export nothing.

[bebraw]

Yeah, there's not much we can do about it in the core. You'll have to set up a loader.

[dandv]

Adding

loaders: [
  {test: /\.json$/, loader: 'json-loader'}
]

solved the problem. Thanks.

[MehdiITService]

where i have to add this ?
loaders: [
{test: /.json$/, loader: 'json-loader'}
]

[LukasBombach]

This is still a thing and adding the json-loader will not work because other dependencies will fail when I do this. What does work though is ignoring iconv:

plugins[
  new webpack.IgnorePlugin(/\/iconv-loader$/)
]

I wonder if this is a bug in webpack or in iconv because if it's iconv I will file an issue there. Can someone clarify this?

[fniewijk]

@LukasBombach Reading this issue, it seems that it is intentional by as mentioned by the maintainer of the iconv package in order to provide a fallback for Browserify users. This issue also notes that your solution is the right one to deal with this problem.

[lid3rs]

plugins[
  new webpack.IgnorePlugin(/\/iconv-loader$/)
]

Could you clarify, where this should be written?

[LukasBombach]

@lid3rs in your Webpack config: https://webpack.js.org/configuration/plugins/

[garyo]

I may be misunderstanding this issue or the solution shown above, but I got here because I see the same error in my Vue project: Warning in ./node_modules/encoding/lib/iconv-loader.js; Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression.

I added to my vue.config.js:

const webpack = require('webpack')
module.exports = {
  configureWebpack: {
    plugins: [
      new webpack.IgnorePlugin(/\/iconv-loader$/),
    ],
   ...
}

but now I get a fatal error instead of just a warning message: Error: cannot find module ./iconv-loader, which makes sense since webpack is now ignoring it.

[Gothmagog]

I was able to ignore it by adding:

module: { noParse: /iconv-loader\.js/, ...