Issues importing modules with virtual: in the name

[mchugh19]

Describe the bug

If I try to use https://github.com/russss/vite-plugin-render-svg within my vite config import { manifest } from 'virtual:render-svg'; to dynamically pass along image names, the build process throws an error:

Error [ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME]: Only URLs with a scheme in: file, data, and node are supported by the default ESM loader. Received protocol 'virtual:'

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Reproduction

https://github.com/mchugh19/zabbix-vue/tree/mv3-2

Steps to reproduce

vite build where vite.config.js contains import { manifest } from 'virtual:render-svg';

System Info

System:
    OS: Linux 5.15 Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS (Focal Fossa)
    CPU: (16) x64 AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX with Radeon Graphics
    Memory: 4.99 GB / 7.47 GB
    Container: Yes
    Shell: 5.0.17 - /bin/bash
  Binaries:
    Node: 23.7.0 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v23.7.0/bin/node
    Yarn: 1.22.22 - ~/.yarn/bin/yarn
    npm: 10.9.2 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v23.7.0/bin/npm
  npmPackages:
    @vitejs/plugin-vue: ^4.5.0 => 4.6.2 
    vite: ^5.0.0 => 5.4.14

Used Package Manager

npm

Logs

Click to expand!

failed to load config from /home/xian/tech/gits/zabbix-vue/vite.config.js
error during build:
Error [ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME]: Only URLs with a scheme in: file, data, and node are supported by the default ESM loader. Received protocol 'virtual:'
    at throwIfUnsupportedURLScheme (node:internal/modules/esm/load:208:11)
    at defaultLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/load:103:3)
    at ModuleLoader.load (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:739:12)
    at ModuleLoader.loadAndTranslate (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:519:43)
    at #createModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:543:36)
    at #getJobFromResolveResult (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:312:34)
    at ModuleLoader.getModuleJobForImport (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:280:41)

Validations

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• Read the Contributing Guidelines.
• Read the docs.
• Check that there isn't already an issue that reports the same bug to avoid creating a duplicate.
• Make sure this is a Vite issue and not a framework-specific issue. For example, if it's a Vue SFC related bug, it should likely be reported to vuejs/core instead.
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• The provided reproduction is a minimal reproducible example of the bug.

[hi-ogawa]

Vite config itself cannot be processed by Vite plugins since that's where plugins are defined, so virtual:render-svg does't work there. See also https://vite.dev/config.

By default, Vite uses esbuild to bundle the config into a temporary file and load it.