Failed To Build gem native extension for debugging

Question

I am installing debugger for Ruby version 1.9.3-p448 then followed the following steps to get debugger installed but on step five I get the error.

The steps are

1) Download Ruby development Kit from the following link and extract it in Ruby base directory: In my case it was C:Ruby193

2) Open a windows command prompt and change the directory to the DevKit folder. Type following command:

ruby dk.rb init

3) Now run the following command to enable DevKit for the Ruby installations in your machine.

ruby dk.rb install

4) Run following command

gem install ruby-debug-ide --platform=ruby --pre

5) For ruby-debug file

First download linecache19-0.5.13.gem and ruby-debug-base19-0.11.26.gem from http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=8883, then execute following commands.

gem install linecache19-0.5.13.gem 

gem install ruby-debug-base19-0.11.26.gem -- --with-ruby-include= C:\Ruby193\ruby-1.9.3-p448-src

6) Type following commands

irb
 require 'ruby-debug'

But 2nd command in step 5 is not getting through and failed to get me proceeded.

Help me in find what i am missing.

Possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1083451/debugging-in-ruby-1-9/2826202#2826202 — tommasop, Nov 02 '13 at 08:01

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 02 '13 at 08:00

The best approach now is to use the new debugger gem if you need a help to start with the new gem you can see Ryan Bates rails cast.

In your Gemfile put:

gem 'debugger', group: [:development, :test]

You can then add a breakpoint anywhere in your code using the debugger keyword.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 16 '14 at 13:37

It's some time since the question was posted but it may be useful to somebody.

I was facing a similar problem in Mac OS X with the same version (1.9.3-p448), I followed the same steps and had to make GCC visible in my path.

In windows you can install MinGW:

http://www.mingw.org/
http://www.mingw.org/wiki/InstallationHOWTOforMinGW
Add the compiler in your path, if you installed in C:\

you must include C:\MinGW\bin in your PATH as explained in the link below.

http://www.mingw.org/wiki/Getting_Started

Install the linecache gem

 gem install linecache -v 1.2.0 --with-ruby-include= C:\Ruby193\ruby-1.9.3-p448-src

Install the debugger gem

 gem install debugger -v 1.6.5 --with-ruby-include= C:\Ruby193\ruby-1.9.3-p448-src

It should work

2 Answers2