I have been trying to pkg a Next JS module and getting one error after another. Seems to be related to ESM modules.

Am I correct in reaching the assumption that pkg wont support handling of esm modules with imports and mjs files.

Ive tried setting up a really simple express server which reinforces this idea.

package.json

{
"name": "hello-exe",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "A simple hello world app packaged with pkg",
"main": "hello.mjs",
"scripts": {
"build:pkg": "pkg hello.mjs --output hello-exe --targets node20-win-x64 --force --debug"
},
"pkg": {
"scripts": [
"hello.mjs"
]
},
"dependencies": {
"express": "^4.17.1"
}
}

hello.mjs (using import)

import express from 'express';

const app = express();
const port = 3000;

console.log('pkg generated executable is working');

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
console.log("hello.js / endpoint hit");
res.send('Hello from Express! pkg generated executable is working');
});

app.get('/test', (req, res) => {
console.log("hello.js /test endpoint hit");
res.send('Testing 1... 2... 3...');
});

app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(Server running at http://localhost:${port});
});

result of running npm build:pkg

C:\snapshot\FoTL_CAM\projects\pkg-test\hello.mjs:1
(function (exports, require, module, __filename, __dirname) { import express from 'express';
^^^^^^

SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module
at new Script (node:vm:118:7)
at Socket. ([eval]:18:19)
at Socket.emit (node:events:518:28)
at addChunk (node:internal/streams/readable:561:12)
at readableAddChunkPushByteMode (node:internal/streams/readable:512:3)
at Readable.push (node:internal/streams/readable:392:5)
at Pipe.onStreamRead (node:internal/stream_base_commons:191:23)

....this works fine if i use cjs format. this produces the correct output

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const port = 3000;

console.log('pkg generated executable is working');

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
console.log("hello.js / endpoint hit");
res.send('Hello from Express! pkg generated executable is working');
});

app.get('/test', (req, res) => {
console.log("hello.js /test endpoint hit");
res.send('Testing 1... 2... 3...');
});

app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(Server running at http://localhost:${port});
});