Error Installing Jekyll - Native Extension Build

Question

I'm having some trouble installing jekyll. Can't quite figure out how to patch the missing link. I think it's an update to Ruby, but RVM is having trouble installing alternate versions of ruby as well.

Heres the full post:

$ sudo gem install jekyll    

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

    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb
mkmf.rb can't find header files for ruby at /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/ruby.h


Gem files will remain installed in /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/fast-stemmer-1.0.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/fast-stemmer-1.0.1/ext/gem_make.out

Does this mean I need to update the version of ruby I'm using via rvm?

What commands specifically are you running to update RVM and then switch your ruby version? — Noah Clark, May 23 '12 at 19:11
It would be helpful if you gave the exact commands you issued followed by the complete output. Try to use code highlighting too. — Noah Clark, May 23 '12 at 19:41
Thanks for pointing that out Noah, I added the command I issued for the jekyll install and what it output. — Robb Schiller, May 23 '12 at 20:04

score 195 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 08 '16 at 18:27

195

Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install ruby-dev
gem install jekyll

edited Oct 08 '16 at 18:27

nloomans

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answered Jul 28 '12 at 09:08

Nmzzz

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but it does solve my problem in Ubuntu, since the question title doesn't mention the os – Larry Cai Jan 18 '13 at 15:40
OP did not mention it explicitly but the error message with the `/System/Library/Frameworks` was pretty revealing. Worked for me none the less on Ubuntu 13.10 – erb Mar 18 '14 at 12:25
This solution works on Raspberry Pi, just need add sudo for the second command: sudo gem install jekyll – ahgood May 14 '14 at 10:56
1

Thank you! I had to `sudo apt-get remove ruby` as I had Ruby 1.9.3, and it wouldn't let me `sudo gem install jekyll`. – Brady Trainor Jul 14 '14 at 05:12
but no one says anything about Windows :( – Mahesha999 Apr 25 '15 at 19:14
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Installing ruby dev fixed the issue. PS: For fedora: ```# dnf install ruby ruby-dev``` – Charles-Eugene Loubao Jan 05 '16 at 00:56
1

Same in my case, version supplied didn't match, but tried ruby-dev then worked, as usual when you miss some packages that requires compiling. – m3nda May 04 '16 at 09:47
I needed `sudo` on both commands. Other than that: GREAT. (Unbuntu MATE 14.04) – Frank N Jan 15 '17 at 15:06

Noah Clark · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-26T04:41:33.427

11

Your problem is that either you system doesn't know where make is located at or you don't have it installed. The easiest way to fix this (and probably other issues you'll run into trying to get a ruby system up and running) is to install xcode.

You can get it at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id497799835?ls=1&mt=12 for lion. Or it came on a CD with your computer for earlier versions.

If you're using Lion, please see comments below for a link to how to install developer tools on Lion.

edited May 26 '12 at 04:41

answered May 23 '12 at 20:58

Noah Clark

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Great! Thanks Noah, glad to hear that's the problem. About 30 min into the install now. – Robb Schiller May 23 '12 at 21:41
I saw you're relatively new here so *if* my solution works you should come back and mark it as an acceptable answer so others can benefit from it. – Noah Clark May 23 '12 at 21:54
2

Absolutely, Thanks so much for your help @NoahClark - Unfortunately though, I've installed xcode and am still getting the same issue when running the `sudo gem install jekyll` - I'll try and update ruby again via rvm? – Robb Schiller May 24 '12 at 13:38
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running the `which make` command also is still coming back empty – Robb Schiller May 24 '12 at 13:41
What does typing in /usr/bin/make at the command line give you? Have you ever compiled anything for source on your system before? – Noah Clark May 24 '12 at 16:27
I'm getting `/usr/bin/make: No such file or directory`. But I've actually just noticed something rather peculiar, My .gem .rvm .gitconfig files are are installed in the /Users/Username directory. This is actually a work computer I've not used much for dev, I am definitely fairly new to command line tools and had all of this working on my personal mac, using the work computer now I'm thinking the user settings are all jammed up. I don't think some important things are installed in the right directories. – Robb Schiller May 24 '12 at 17:56
Which means I don't think my system knows where make is located. With xcode installed it has to be there. – Robb Schiller May 24 '12 at 20:46
.gem, .rvm and .gitconfig could (and probably should) be in your home directory. That's not weird. Can you confirm that xcode is installed by running it? Are you on Lion? See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1469994/using-make-on-osx – Noah Clark May 24 '12 at 21:00
Yeah, that's what I referencing from the link above! Glad you found it! – Noah Clark May 26 '12 at 04:40

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 10 '15 at 13:41

7

I had the same error on Ubuntu and this helped me sort it out.

You must have ruby-dev installed

apt-get install ruby-dev

answered Jun 10 '15 at 13:41

Mayas

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score 6 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

6

If you installed XCode and command line tools are still missing go to Terminal and

xcode-select --install

it will prompt you to install these tools. After that just follow SrBlanco´s answer. That solved the problem for me.

Good luck.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

Community

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answered Feb 07 '15 at 10:14

Sebastian

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score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 17 '13 at 04:33

5

Need to install "make". I am using Ubuntu 12.10. sudo apt-get install make Should work on any Debian based distro.

answered Feb 17 '13 at 04:33

xsc27

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score 3 · Answer 6 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

3

Note: this problem also occurs on newer MacBook Pro models that come with Mavericks pre-installed. I updated another post with my own solution that didn't involve Xcode at all. My system had the Xcode developer tools installed when I got the machine.

ERROR: Error installing jekyll: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community

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answered Apr 25 '14 at 16:44

SrBlanco

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 17 '13 at 15:26

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Install Xcode as mentioned if you don't have it installed already (https://developer.apple.com/xcode/). Plus you need the command line tools.

Open Xcode. Go to Preferences > Downloads > Install Command Line Tools

answered Mar 17 '13 at 15:26

j7nn7k

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Please don't post the same answer multiple times. Especially if you're essentially repeating what the other answers say. If you find duplicate questions, flag the so they can be merged. – Mat Mar 17 '13 at 15:49
I answered two questions with the same answer. Because I guess people will land on both answers. I don't know what you mean by repeating the other answers! The part with the command line tools is nowhere mentioned but an essential part of the solution. Xcode alone gets you nowhere. – j7nn7k Mar 18 '13 at 13:08

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 20 '15 at 17:27

2

Installing command line tools for Xcode solved the problem for me on my Mac

xcode-select --install.

answered Oct 20 '15 at 17:27

Ajay Gautam

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score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 27 '16 at 09:34

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sudo apt-get install ruby-dev
sudo gem install jekyll

hope this will help, it works with me.

answered Nov 27 '16 at 09:34

Shuai.Z

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 14 '14 at 17:06

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I had this same exact error when trying to install Jekyll, and the following steps from this link helped me. Just in case anyone else comes across this!

http://davidensinger.com/2013/03/installing-jekyll/

answered Feb 14 '14 at 17:06

Jeff Lupinski

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score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Dec 25 '15 at 12:15

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I was facing the same issue in my Fedora 22 setup. I had ruby installed but didn't have ruby-devel. Installing ruby-devel fixed the issue for me.

dnf install -y ruby-devel

For older systems:

yum install -y ruby-devel

answered Dec 25 '15 at 12:15

Joydip Datta

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score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Aug 22 '18 at 15:42

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I followed this on Ubuntu/Linux Mint

sudo apt install build-essential
sudo apt install ruby-dev
sudo gem install jekyll

answered Aug 22 '18 at 15:42

Saikat

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score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 18 '13 at 20:25

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An addendum: You can install XCode now from the App Store on Mountain Lion. The process is transparent and pretty fast.

answered Feb 18 '13 at 20:25

Minide

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Aug 05 '13 at 16:25

I had the same problems with you.

I use Mac OS X 10.9 develop preview version, and I had installed gcc and Xcode.

But my Xcode version is 4.6.

Then I install the Xcode 5.0

After that I type sudo gem install jekyll in the terminal again. Then it works.

Wish it could help someone.

score 0 · Answer 15 · edited Dec 27 '13 at 15:05

0

Installing Xcode and going to perferencs > downloads > install commandline tools WORKS!

edited Dec 27 '13 at 15:05

BenMorel

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answered Oct 10 '13 at 01:55

josh_bailey4

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Jan 26 '14 at 19:05

0

Same problem on Debian, I had forgot to run this command:

~/.rvm/scripts/rvm

answered Jan 26 '14 at 19:05

null

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Mohamed Taher Alrefaie · Answer 17 · 2016-03-29T20:52:41.453

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All these answers did NOT work for me.

If you're looking for a solution on ubuntu 14.04, do this:

sudo apt-get install ruby1.9.1-dev zlib1g-dev nodejs
sudo gem install jekyll -v 2.5.3

Unfortunately, nodejs is required because of a bug in Jekyll that enforces existence of runtime JS engine even though it doesn't need one.

edited Mar 29 '16 at 20:52

answered Mar 23 '16 at 22:29

Mohamed Taher Alrefaie

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score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Feb 11 '18 at 01:54

For Ubuntu, this helped in my case:

apt-get install libffi-dev

A general advice is to just follow what is displayed as the reason for the error and hopefully you'll be provided with a log file in which the first line suggests which package should be installed, in my case:

To see why this extension failed to compile, please check the mkmf.log which can be found here:

  /var/lib/gems/2.3.0/extensions/x86_64-linux/2.3.0/ffi-1.9.21/mkmf.log

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Apr 29 '18 at 02:38

0

MacOS

my solution to this problem

install xcode
type xcode-select --install in the command line
type sudo gem install jekyll in the command line

PS: It is the combination of the two answers in this question.

answered Apr 29 '18 at 02:38

Rubick

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score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Feb 05 '19 at 14:19

0

You are missing the ruby-dev file , just go ahead and run this command - sudo apt-get install ruby-dev

Hope this helps!!

answered Feb 05 '19 at 14:19

rahul ranjan

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score 0 · Answer 21 · answered Feb 14 '19 at 03:58

I had the same issue on my macOS(10.14.2), the reason may be:

Apparently with OSX el Capitan, there is a new security function that prevents you from modifying system files called Rootless.

My solution is using rvm:

install ruby on Mac OS X with RVM
gem install jekyll

score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Jun 05 '19 at 09:05

On windows I have this issue

I actually installed the version rubyinstaller-devkit-2.6.3-1-x64 of ruby

I have removed the ruby completely and Installed the rubyinstaller-devkit-2.5.5-1-x64

and issued the following commands on powershell

gem install bundler
gem install jekyll

and this time no errors where found

score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Sep 29 '19 at 02:45

0

I had this issue and of all things, the error was occurring because I hadn't agreed to some updated terms of service in xcode. Running the following did the trick for me. Go figure.

sudo xcodebuild -license accept

answered Sep 29 '19 at 02:45

nniroclax

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score 0 · Answer 24 · answered Nov 11 '19 at 21:09

For me, I had to upgrade homebrew and install rbenv to the latest ruby version. After that, I followed the instruction at jekyll website. My OS is Catalina 2019, I couldn't install Xcode, which is not compatible yet!

You have to set the path in your .bash_profile to make sure that it initializes the rbenv when you restart your terminal.

export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(rbenv init -)"

then

$ rbenv version
2.2.3 (set by /Users/mislav/.rbenv/version)
$ rbenv shell
rbenv: no shell-specific version configured

hope that help!

William Entriken · Answer 25 · 2021-05-24T03:33:54.143

Here is the (only?) reliable and simple way to install Jekyll on macOS

Install UTM
Install Ubuntu Server
Install Jekyll using Ubuntu instructions at https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/ubuntu/
Forward port 22 in the VM settings (22->localhost->22)
Use VS Code on the macOS host
Install Remote SSH
Connect to USER@localhost
Drag and drop the folder on Mac into VS Code (this transfers files to remote)
Enable port forwarding for 4000 (bottom bar on VS Code)
Work on your website
Right click on your website on the file explorer and click download

If you have not done these steps, you might be delighted by:

Ubuntu imports your public SSH key from GitHub
VS Code magically handles file transfer in and out
VS Code magically installs your VS Code extensions onto the remote server and allows file search on the remote host

Error Installing Jekyll - Native Extension Build

25 Answers25

Ubuntu

I followed this on Ubuntu/Linux Mint

MacOS

Here is the (only?) reliable and simple way to install Jekyll on macOS

Linked

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