# Dependencies for artifacts

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependencies-for-artifacts/106883>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [November 29, 2023, 8:24am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependencies-for-artifacts/106883 "2023-11-29T08:24:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jsjie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jsjie/32/22477_2.png) [@jsjie](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jsjie)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 8:24am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependencies-for-artifacts/106883/1 "2023-11-29T08:24:52Z")

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I met something like

```julia
ERROR: LoadError: InitError: could not load library "${USER}\.julia\artifacts\${SHA}\bin\libiomp5md.dll"
The specified module could not be found. 

```

But the file is just there. Strangely, another PC is fine.

After some digging, I find the actual reason. `libiomp5md` need `C:\WINDOWS\system32\VCRUNTIME140.dll` as its dependency, which is missing in one of my PCs.

Such problems are annoying, there might be two ways to handle this.

One is to have more clear error message for such failure. Sadly, it seems impossible, because dlopen will directly call C function `jl_load_dynamic_library`, and there might be no way to know about the real cause.

Another is to prevent such problems from the beginning. It seems that `VCRUNTIME140` are part of `Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable` or something similar, which is one of the so-so-many run-time library-collections MS offers.  
If I understand it correctly, such dependencies are related to the environment in which the artifact is compiled. To make it clear, they are related to what run-time library-collections you use when compiling.

If we can decide a common Windows environment where every Julia artifact works, something like `manylinux` in python community, then users only need to make sure their PC have the required dependencies to be sure that everything works.  
I know that such run-time libraries are in a total mess in the whole Windows ecosystem, but maybe we the Julia community can do something on our own?

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**Author:** ![GunnarFarneback](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gunnarfarneback/32/1827_2.png) [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 8:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependencies-for-artifacts/106883/2 "2023-11-30T20:35:29Z")

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The recommended way to build artifacts is to use [BinaryBuilder](https://github.com/JuliaPackaging/BinaryBuilder.jl), which cross-compiles between platforms and doesn’t involve any VC runtimes on Windows.

Some artifacts are, however, just repackaged from other builds, possibly because they are a real pain to build from source. In [this specific case](https://github.com/JuliaPackaging/Yggdrasil/blob/521105501c08eabdf1712c205530a92e3b30c3f8/I/IntelOpenMP/build_tarballs.jl#L6-L17) it’s imported from anaconda.

So, yes, for the most part something own is being done and the rest is difficult to control.

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**Author:** ![jean32](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jean32/32/218879_2.png) [@jean32](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jean32)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 9:40am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependencies-for-artifacts/106883/3 "2025-10-07T09:40:25Z")

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Hello,  
Thanks for the comment, I got exactly this error while reinstalling a julia env on a new windows PC. I cannot make OrdinaryDiffEq precompile because of this error. How do you solve? do I need ot install vcruntime140.dll through microsoft visual c++ library or is there a cleaner solution?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jsjie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jsjie/32/22477_2.png) [@jsjie](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jsjie)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 2:40am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependencies-for-artifacts/106883/4 "2025-10-08T02:40:20Z")

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I manually installed `Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable` to solve it