Build error "Unexpected character '�'" with SvelteKit 2.21.3

[kevinrenskers]

Describe the bug

When I run pnpm build on my local machine I get this:

vite v6.3.5 building SSR bundle for production...
✓ 1524 modules transformed.
✗ Build failed in 3.02s
error during build:
[commonjs--resolver] node_modules/.pnpm/fsevents@2.3.3/node_modules/fsevents/fsevents.node (1:0): Unexpected character '�' (Note that you need plugins to import files that are not JavaScript)
file: /Users/kevin/Workspace/sr/www.soundradix.com/node_modules/.pnpm/fsevents@2.3.3/node_modules/fsevents/fsevents.node:1:0 (/Users/kevin/Workspace/sr/www.soundradix.com/node_modules/.pnpm/chokidar@3.6.0/node_modules/chokidar/index.js)

1: ����@<�
          ��*...
   ^
4*�
   h����/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions...
3: ���H��1�H����L����L����H������L�E�L��H��1������uH�E�H�[A^A_]��}f.���UH��AWAVSPI��H��I��HH...

    at getRollupError (file:///Users/kevin/Workspace/sr/www.soundradix.com/node_modules/.pnpm/rollup@4.44.0/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/parseAst.js:401:41)
    at ParseError.initialise (file:///Users/kevin/Workspace/sr/www.soundradix.com/node_modules/.pnpm/rollup@4.44.0/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/node-entry.js:14305:28)
    at convertNode (file:///Users/kevin/Workspace/sr/www.soundradix.com/node_modules/.pnpm/rollup@4.44.0/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/node-entry.js:16209:10)
    at convertProgram (file:///Users/kevin/Workspace/sr/www.soundradix.com/node_modules/.pnpm/rollup@4.44.0/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/node-entry.js:15452:12)
    at Module.setSource (file:///Users/kevin/Workspace/sr/www.soundradix.com/node_modules/.pnpm/rollup@4.44.0/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/node-entry.js:17201:24)
    at async ModuleLoader.addModuleSource (file:///Users/kevin/Workspace/sr/www.soundradix.com/node_modules/.pnpm/rollup@4.44.0/node_modules/rollup/dist/es/shared/node-entry.js:21214:13)
 ELIFECYCLE  Command failed with exit code 1.

It doesn't seem to happen on the server (which runs Ubuntu, local machine is macOS). It also doesn't happen in SvelteKit 2.21.2.

Reproduction

I'm using TailwindCSS, which has chokidar as a dependency. For me it happens as soon as I run pnpm build on macOS.

Logs

System Info

System:
    OS: macOS 15.5
    CPU: (10) arm64 Apple M1 Max
    Memory: 286.86 MB / 32.00 GB
    Shell: 4.0.2 - /opt/homebrew/bin/fish
  Binaries:
    Node: 20.17.0 - ~/Library/pnpm/node
    npm: 10.8.2 - ~/Library/pnpm/npm
    pnpm: 10.2.1 - ~/Library/pnpm/pnpm
  Browsers:
    Chrome: 136.0.7103.114
    Edge: 137.0.3296.93
    Safari: 18.5
  npmPackages:
    @sveltejs/adapter-node: ^5.2.12 => 5.2.12
    @sveltejs/kit: ^2.21.3 => 2.21.3
    @sveltejs/vite-plugin-svelte: ^5.1.0 => 5.1.0
    svelte: ^5.34.7 => 5.34.7
    vite: ^6.3.5 => 6.3.5

Severity

blocking an upgrade

Additional Information

No response

[anhtuank7c]

I faced the same problem, I need to add these lines into vite.config.ts to bypass this issue.

build: {
  rollupOptions: {
    external: (id) => {
      // External Node.js native modules
      if (id === 'fsevents' || id.includes('fsevents')) return true;
      if (id === 'chokidar' || id.includes('chokidar')) return true;
      // External other problematic modules
      if (id.includes('.node')) return true;
      return false;
    }
  }
}

I am using @sveltejs/adapter-cloudflare, it work normally for months, just got this issue today. Weird.

packages:

"@sveltejs/adapter-cloudflare": "^5.1.0",
"@sveltejs/kit": "^2.22.0",
"globals": "^15.15.0",

[elliott-with-the-longest-name-on-github]

This will probably be fixed by #13894, I'll respond here whenever it's merged so you can check.

[anhtuank7c]

@elliott-with-the-longest-name-on-github Could you please point out the root cause? I have read the issue from above but honestly I don't see any relation.

[elliott-with-the-longest-name-on-github]

My suspicion is that a CJS module is getting loaded when an ESM one should be instead. Hard to prove. If I get time I'll dig in and see if I can.

[anhtuank7c]

My suspicion is that a CJS module is getting loaded when an ESM one should be instead. Hard to prove. If I get time I'll dig in and see if I can.

Thank you so much.

[kevinrenskers]

I just tried SvelteKit 2.24.0 and building on macOS seems to work again. (I guess the fix was in 2.22.3)