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I ran sudo gem update earlier today and was thrilled to see it work, but at the end it failed. 

Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError)
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

ruby extconf.rb update
can't find header files for ruby.

I don't have Xcode, and if possible, I don't want to install it. Any other way to fix this?

August Lilleaas
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kristian nissen
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3 Answers3

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You will need to install xcode to get the c libraries that are required to build the c native extensions for some ruby gems. Is there any reason you dont want to install Xcode?

ennuikiller
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  • I don't have that much space on my old G4. – kristian nissen Sep 08 '09 at 19:05
  • Maybe it's time to upgrade your harddisk, since you are going to need Xcode in order to compile native gems. – Ariejan Sep 09 '09 at 04:33
  • here is the error: sudo gem install rails Building native extensions. This could take a while... ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError) ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. ruby extconf.rb install rails can't find header files for ruby. Gem files will remain installed in /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/fcgi-0.8.7 for inspection. Results logged to /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/fcgi-0.8.7/ext/fcgi/gem_make.out – kristian nissen Sep 29 '09 at 19:06
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You might want to check out the answers to this question and this thread on the MacRumors forums. It looks like it's possible to install gcc & the right libraries without all of Xcode now, but you'll still need to download the whole DMG from Apple.

Community
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Shawn Craver
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I appears to be looking for (part of) the source for Ruby. You might try getting that and installing it too.

dlamblin
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