[v1] C++ 2013 Runtime Dependency not bundled/documented

[fowl2]

Without the Visual C++ 2013 runtime installed, attempting to run a Azure Functions v1 project will result in an error similar to this:

cd module.js:583
  return process.dlopen(module, path._makeLong(filename));
                 ^
Error: The specified module could not be found.
\\?\C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\azure-functions-core-tools\bin\edge\x86\edge_nativeclr.node

edge_nativeclr.node is part of https://github.com/tjanczuk/edge, some sort of bridge between .NET and Node.js (not to be confused with Edge the browser, or https://github.com/edge-js the templating engine!). This error occurs regardless of the presence of functions written in Javascript.

Later versions of edge.js, apparently use the C++ 2015 runtime, which seems to be evergreen-ish and is definitely is bundled with Visual Studio. This might bump the Node version which is probably undesired at this point, although running a 5 year old version of Node is probably undesired too.

I guess a fix here would be to ensure the C++ 2013 runtime is included in setup. Alternatively detect when it is not and disable JS function support, or improve the understandability of the error message.

see: https://github.com/Azure/azure-functions-core-tools/issues/163

[michaelpeng36]

@fowl2 Thanks for surfacing this. Based on this document, Azure Functions V1 is in maintenance mode. Would it be possible to move to Azure Functions V4 for your use case?

[fowl2]

We're working on it! But this was a real issue that a colleague experienced, that's only going to get more common as other products update. Given that v1 is still being supported indefinitely, I think packaging fixes count as "maintenance" :)