Why am I getting this error when attempting to use postgresql as database in RoR?

Question

I am working on starting a new project and I am getting an error I can't resolve after following the error's suggestions. Anybody out there know of any reason why Ruby 2.1.2 should not play well with Rails 4.2.6 when installing postgresql database? I am getting this type of error:

Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb
checking for pg_config... no
No pg_config... trying anyway. If building fails, please try again with
 --with-pg-config=/path/to/pg_config
checking for libpq-fe.h... no
Can't find the 'libpq-fe.h header
 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.

I checked the logs and it might as well have been in hieroglyphics:

"gcc -E -I/Users/danale/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.3.3/include/ruby-2.3.0/x86_64-darwin16 -I/Users/danale/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.3.3/include/ruby-2.3.0/ruby/backward -I/Users/danale/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.3.3/include/ruby-2.3.0 -I.  -I/usr/local/opt/libyaml/include -I/usr/local/opt/readline/include -I/usr/local/opt/libksba/include -I/usr/local/opt/openssl/include -I/usr/local/opt/libyaml/include -I/usr/local/opt/readline/include -I/usr/local/opt/libksba/include -I/usr/local/opt/openssl/include -D_XOPEN_SOURCE -D_DARWIN_C_SOURCE -D_DARWIN_UNLIMITED_SELECT -D_REENTRANT    -O3 -fno-fast-math -ggdb3 -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-parentheses -Wno-long-long -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wunused-variable -Wpointer-arith -Wwrite-strings -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wshorten-64-to-32 -Wimplicit-function-declaration -Wdivision-by-zero -Wdeprecated-declarations -Wextra-tokens  -fno-common -pipe  conftest.c -o conftest.i"
conftest.c:3:10: fatal error: 'libpq-fe.h' file not found
#include <libpq-fe.h>
         ^
1 error generated.
checked program was:
/* begin */
1: #include "ruby.h"
2:
3: #include <libpq-fe.h>
/* end */

I since changed to Ruby version 2.1.2, hoping it was a compatibility issue, but it did not resolve the error. When I try to follow the suggestions of error:

Gem files will remain installed in /Users/danale/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/gems/pg-0.19.0 for inspection.
Results logged to /Users/danale/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2/extensions/x86_64-darwin-16/2.1.0/pg-0.19.0/gem_make.out
danales-MacBook-Pro:Projects danale$ bundle exec spring binstub --all
Could not locate Gemfile or .bundle/ directory
danales-MacBook-Pro:Projects danale$ bundle install
Could not locate Gemfile

I get what you see above.

You just need to install the development headers for PostgreSQL. I don't know how to do that in a Mac, unfortunately. — Ed de Almeida, Feb 02 '17 at 21:59
http://stackoverflow.com/a/19620569/5706543 maybe this will help? — Gennady Grishkovtsov, Feb 02 '17 at 22:00
Possible duplicate of [Rails 3 - can't install pg gem](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9668753/rails-3-cant-install-pg-gem) — Ed de Almeida, Feb 02 '17 at 22:01
Also take a look in the answers for this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6040583/cant-find-the-libpq-fe-h-header-when-trying-to-install-pg-gem — Ed de Almeida, Feb 02 '17 at 22:03
And this: http://esausilva.com/2014/11/01/cannot-install-pg-gem-in-mac-osx-error-installing-pg-error-failed-to-build-gem-native-extension-ruby-on-rails/ — Ed de Almeida, Feb 02 '17 at 22:04

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 07 '17 at 06:35

3

Daniel nailed this in the comments and I don't need credit for it, but if you're a Mac user you need to use:

brew install postgresql

edited Jul 07 '17 at 06:35

moondaisy

4,303
6
41
70

answered Jul 07 '17 at 00:09

Kyle S Morlack

46
4

Ed de Almeida · Answer 2 · 2017-07-10T00:02:31.013

1

This error means you don't have the headers to compile the native extensions in your machine. You may install them by doing:

 brew install postgresql

ot then

gem install pg -- --with-pg-config='PG_CONFIG_PATH'

and then try to run bundle install again.

You may read more about this here.

edited Jul 10 '17 at 00:02

answered Feb 02 '17 at 22:07

Ed de Almeida

3,675
4
25
57

Hey Ed, I am getting no formulae found in taps for "brew install libpg-dev" – Daniel Feb 02 '17 at 23:22
1

Ed, you were on the right track. For Mac, it's not brew install libpg-dev but brew install postgresql, but I will go ahead and mark your answer as the correct one. – Daniel Feb 02 '17 at 23:25
Fixing the answer according to @Daniel's information. – Ed de Almeida Jul 10 '17 at 00:02

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 16 '17 at 18:34

Try this: Go to System Settings => Open Software & Updates, you need to have both trusty-security & trusty-updates are enabled under the Updates tab, then reload your sources & see if you get the current versions. After that open your terminal and run sudo apt-get update.

Why am I getting this error when attempting to use postgresql as database in RoR?

3 Answers3