How to install MySQL gem on Mac OS X

Question

What do I need to install mysql gem on Mac OS X ? I\'m getting error \"failed to build native extensions\".

Answer 1

I installed MySQL with Homebrew and I had to use this to finally be able to upgrade the gem:

gem install mysql2 -- --with-mysql-dir=/usr/local/opt/mysql/

Answer 2

if you already have MySQL server running elsewhere on the network and would like to still install the gem without having to install MySQL try the following

brew install mysql-connector-c

followed by

gem install mysql

Answer 3

I'm using Mac OS X Mountain Lion, and installed MySQL with DMG.

gem install do_mysql -- \ --with-mysql-dir=/usr/local/mysql --with-mysql-lib=/usr/local/mysql/lib --with-mysql-include=/usr/local/mysql/include

and

sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib

This works for me ;)

Answer 4

Install MySQL first, either by using binary or Homebrew.

Then:

gem install mysql2

Or:

gem install ruby-mysql

Just pick one and you are good to go.

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Edit

In case you upgraded to MySQL version 5.6.12 on OS X, mysql2 will fail to compile. Solution is to downgrade MySQL as described here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/17252887/45254

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Edit2

In case you don't want to have mysql installed (maybe you use docker to manage your services) but do want to use mysql2 gem, you can instead install mysql-connector-c (using homebrew).