nodejs/node · warning

Item %s depends on missing item %s

Error message

Item %s depends on missing item %s

What it means

Emitted by icupkg's dependency checker when an item in the package declares a dependency on another item that is not present in the package. Unlike the other errors this one does NOT call exit() — it sets isMissingItems=true and continues, acting as a warning printed to stderr.

Source

Thrown at deps/icu-small/source/tools/toolutil/package.cpp:1228

Package::getItemCount() const {
    return itemCount;
}

const Item *
Package::getItem(int32_t idx) const {
    if (0 <= idx && idx < itemCount) {
        return &items[idx];
    }
    return nullptr;
}

void
Package::checkDependency(void *context, const char *itemName, const char *targetName) {
    // check dependency: make sure the target item is in the package
    Package* me = static_cast<Package*>(context);
    if(me->findItem(targetName)<0) {
        me->isMissingItems=true;
        fprintf(stderr, "Item %s depends on missing item %s\n", itemName, targetName);
    }
}

UBool
Package::checkDependencies() {
    isMissingItems=false;
    enumDependencies(this, checkDependency);
    return !isMissingItems;
}

void
Package::enumDependencies(void *context, CheckDependency check) {
    int32_t i;

    for(i=0; i<itemCount; ++i) {
        enumDependencies(items+i, context, check);
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 1b2de5e052)

Solutions

1. Review the printed item and target names; add the missing target item back into the package.
2. Run 'icupkg -l <pkg>.dat' to list all present items and compare against the dependency target.
3. If the dependency is intentionally removed, ignore the warning (checkDependencies returns false but does not abort).
4. Rebuild the package from the full ICU data set to restore a consistent dependency graph.

Example fix

# before: custom package missing a dependency
icupkg -a in.dat -r 'icudt68l/res_index.res' custom.dat
icupkg custom.dat   # warns: X depends on missing res_index.res

# after: keep the dependency target
icupkg -a in.dat -r 'icudt68l/root.res,icudt68l/res_index.res' custom.dat

// Before relying on a custom .dat, list items and verify each dependency
// target is present. icupkg itself can do this: 'icupkg -l' lists items.
// Shell preflight:
//   icupkg -l custom.dat | sort > present.txt
//   # for each dependency target reported, grep present.txt
// In code, call Package::checkDependencies() and treat false as a soft failure
// (warn the user, do not ship the package).

When it happens

Trigger: Package::checkDependencies calls enumDependencies, which iterates every item and invokes checkDependency(itemName, targetName). If findItem(targetName) < 0 for any target, the message prints and isMissingItems flips true.

Common situations: Custom .dat packages assembled by hand with a subset of items; tree-shaking that removed a dependency; version mismatch where dependency graph changed between ICU releases; locale data referencing a shared resource that was excluded.

Related errors

• Warning: The top level tag in the resource and language spec
• U_MEMORY_ALLOCATION_ERROR
• U_ILLEGAL_ARGUMENT_ERROR
• Error generating assembly code for data.
• -1

AI-assisted analysis of nodejs/node@1b2de5e052 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3e7f6bd349feee43. Report an issue: GitHub.