OS-X, Rails: “Failed to build gem native extension”

Question

I\'m stuck trying to install rails on my mac. I have OS X 10.6.8 and I have confirmed that I have Ruby, version 1.8.7

I ran sudo gem update and su

Answer 1

Try to install Ruby via RVM. I solved in this way

How to install ruby on Ubuntu with rvm

Answer 2

There are two possible reasons for the fail:

1. PRIMARY REASON: Missing Xcode Command Line Tools

Verifying Xcode Command Line Tools Installation manually: Check for presence of "/usr/include/iconv.h" (if absent=>Missing or improperly installed Xcode CLT)

Installing Xcode CLT: Try running xcode-select --install on terminal and follow the instructions. If it fails, open Xcode.app, select from menu "Xcode" - "Open Developer Tool" - "More Developer Tools" to open the developer site, download the installer for your OS version and run it.

2. SECONDARY REASON(if 1. fails): Version issues Try upgrading the ruby version using rbenv.

Hope it helps!

Answer 3

If you have XCode 4 or later you will need to open it and go to Preferences -> Downloads -> Components and install the Command Line tools as they aren't installed by default. Couldn't install Rails until this happened.

Answer 4

Just a follow up ...

it may be that you are on a mac and rails cannot find the right compiler for c headers.

just install xcode from apps store / homebrew or go to terminal ...

$ xcode-select --install

complete the installation and agree on the licensing etc, then ...

$ sudo gem install rails

Answer 5

Switch Ruby to Homebrew version:

$ brew install ruby
$ brew link --overwrite ruby

$ echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
$ echo 'export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/ruby/lib"' >> ~/.bash_profile
$ echo 'export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/ruby/include"' >> ~/.bash_profile

Answer 6

Did you install the OS X developer tools? You'll need to do this to be able to build native extensions