Error Installing PG Gem on Windows

Question

I'm using XAMPP as my installation folder for PostgreSQL 9.3.

C:\xampp\pgsql\9.3

And now I'm trying to install PostgreSQL gem using that directory as a reference:

gem install pg -- --with-pg-include="C:\xampp\pgsql\9.3\include" --with-pg-lib="C:\xampp\pgsql\9.3\lib" --with-pg-config="C:\xampp\pgsql\9.3\bin\pg_config"

But this command failed with errors listed below:

ERROR:  Error installing pg:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    C:/Ruby/Ruby200/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb --with-pg-include=C:\xampp\pgsql\9.3
\include --with-pg-lib=C:\xampp\pgsql\9.3\lib --with-pg-config=C:\xampp\pgsql\9.
3\bin\pg_config
Using config values from C:\xampp\pgsql\9.3\bin\pg_config
checking for libpq-fe.h... yes
checking for libpq/libpq-fs.h... yes
checking for pg_config_manual.h... yes
checking for PQconnectdb() in -lpq... no
checking for PQconnectdb() in -llibpq... no
checking for PQconnectdb() in -lms/libpq... no
Cant find the PostgreSQL client library (libpq)
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary
libraries and/or headers.  Check the mkmf.log file for more details.  You may
need configuration options.

Provided configuration options:
        --with-opt-dir
        --without-opt-dir
        --with-opt-include
        --without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
        --with-opt-lib
        --without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
        --with-make-prog
        --without-make-prog
        --srcdir=.
        --curdir
        --ruby=C:/Ruby/Ruby200/bin/ruby
        --with-pg
        --without-pg
        --with-pg-config
        --with-pg-dir
        --without-pg-dir
        --with-pg-include=${pg-dir}/include
        --with-pg-lib=${pg-dir}/
        --with-pqlib
        --without-pqlib
        --with-libpqlib
        --without-libpqlib
        --with-ms/libpqlib
        --without-ms/libpqlib

extconf failed, exit code 1

Gem files will remain installed in C:/Ruby/Ruby200/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/pg-0
.17.1 for inspection.
Results logged to C:/Ruby/Ruby200/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/extensions/x86-mingw32/2.0
.0/pg-0.17.1/gem_make.out

When I checked inside pgsql, there was actually a file named libpq.dll inside of

C:\xampp\pgsql\9.3\lib

So why did the error say it couldn't find the PostgreSQL client library (libpq)??
Is there any solutions for this error?

FYI, I'm using:

• Windows 8.1 64-bit
• Ruby 2.0.0 64-bit
• Rails 4.1.1
• Devkit 4.7.2 64-bit
• PostgreSQL 9.3.4 64-bit

And I'm trying to install PG Gem version 0.17.1

Answer 1

As a follow-up to the comments, it looks like you've got to use 32-bit Postgres on Windows.

This is most likely to do with the idea that the pg gem works with mingw32, although I'm not totally sure