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

Question

Got the DevKit installed and re-ran the ffi install….got this as an output:

C:\Documents and Settings\******>gem install ffi
Temporarily enhancing PATH to include DevKit...
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing ffi:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

        C:/Ruby192/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb
checking for ffi.h... no
checking for ffi.h in /usr/local/include... no
checking for rb_thread_blocking_region()... yes
checking for ruby_thread_has_gvl_p()... yes
checking for ruby_native_thread_p()... yes
checking for rb_thread_call_with_gvl()... yes
creating extconf.h
creating Makefile
make
C:/Ruby192/bin/ruby -e "puts 'EXPORTS', 'Init_ffi_c'"  > ffi_c-i386-mingw32.def
gcc -I. -IC:/Ruby192/include/ruby-1.9.1/i386-mingw32 -I/C/Ruby192/include/ruby-1
.9.1/ruby/backward -I/C/Ruby192/include/ruby-1.9.1 -I. -DRUBY_EXTCONF_H=\"extcon
f.h\"    -O3 -g -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-parentheses -Wpointer-arith -
Wwrite-strings -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wno-long-long -Wno-declaration-a
fter-statement   -o AbstractMemory.o -c AbstractMemory.c
In file included from AbstractMemory.c:28:0:
compat.h:65:20: warning: extra tokens at end of #ifndef directive
compat.h:69:24: warning: extra tokens at end of #ifndef directive
In file included from AbstractMemory.h:29:0,
                 from AbstractMemory.c:29:
Types.h:68:17: fatal error: ffi.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
make: *** [AbstractMemory.o] Error 1 

Gem files will remain installed in C:/Ruby192/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ffi-1.0.1
0 for inspection.
Results logged to C:/Ruby192/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/ffi-1.0.10/ext/ffi_c/gem_m
ake.out
_________________________________________________________________________________

Not sure how to deal with this issue. Kindly help.

score 22 · Answer 1 · edited May 11 '17 at 22:49

22

The gem install ffi fails due to the gem trying to build a bundled copy of libffi, which does not work due to assumptions that /usr/bin/env exists and too old libffi copy.

However, you can build the ffi gem against the system libffi - install the packages:

apt install clang make ruby-dev libffi-dev

After that the ffi gem should build:

gem install ffi

edited May 11 '17 at 22:49

johnnyRose

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answered May 11 '17 at 22:23

ElS arekh

221
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What about macos? – Christian Vincenzo Traina Mar 03 '22 at 14:16

score 16 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 06 '18 at 19:06

16

sudo apt-get install libffi-dev

This worked for me

answered Feb 06 '18 at 19:06

sahilbathla

519
3
10

This is what worked for me, as well, on a Linux Mint system. Here's a hint to future seekers (for what it's worth to posterity): a gem that won't automatically install generally requires, in my experience, the system's own package manager to install the 'dev' version of a related package. – Jon Carter Feb 16 '18 at 02:29

score 16 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 26 '11 at 14:10

16

Version 1.0.10 has issues compiling on windows.

You can use the 1.0.9

gem install ffi --version='1.0.9'

answered Oct 26 '11 at 14:10

tommasop

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+1 thank you so much, this helped me install middleman on my Win7 box – Jason Sep 14 '12 at 21:14
`ERROR: Error installing railties: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.` – Oct 10 '13 at 11:25
Is the error happening with the same ruby and ffi version which Windows OS? – tommasop Oct 10 '13 at 12:17

score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 27 '13 at 15:23

8

For me the fix was running in this order. I'm not sure what all was relevant, but it worked:

gem install ffi --version '1.0.9'

The above failed, but then I could successfully run:

gem install bundler

...and subsequently:

gem install ffi

...which got the latest version (1.6.0 at the time of writing this) and installed it successfully.

answered Mar 27 '13 at 15:23

Grinn

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Thanks a million! – Salma Gomaa Mar 06 '18 at 09:45

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 21 '12 at 10:41

7

when the above steps are followed, it might results the following message.

$ bundle install
Fetching source index for https://rubygems.org/
You have requested:
ffi = 1.0.9

The bundle currently has ffi locked at 1.0.11.
Try running `bundle update ffi`

In that case, you can run the 'bundle update ffi' command and the error will be solved.

answered Feb 21 '12 at 10:41

maniempire

791
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`bundle update ffi` worked for me, thanks. – José Mateus Apr 11 '23 at 13:44

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 05 '11 at 18:14

Note that installing version 1.0.9 isn't going to be enough if your bundler keeps trying to go out and grab the latest version. In your gemfile you'll also want to put:

gem 'ffi', '1.0.9'

This should satisfy the dependency for whatever gem is asking for it and let you get up and running.

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 27 '12 at 19:43

4

Installing the 'osx-gcc-installer' worked for me: (osx 10.8)

https://github.com/kennethreitz/osx-gcc-installer/downloads

answered Aug 27 '12 at 19:43

wantrapreneur

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the environment used for the question is windows – tommasop Sep 18 '12 at 16:00
2

Newer versions of macOS may simply `xcode-select --install` to get the compilers. – vhs Feb 05 '19 at 07:45
This link is not working – Shamsul Haque Sep 20 '22 at 08:01

score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 28 '20 at 12:37

4

Helped me:

sudo apt install build-essential

Debian 9

Ruby 2.3.3

answered Feb 28 '20 at 12:37

vovan

1,460
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score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 23 '20 at 15:22

4

For me, this usually works

gem install ffi -- --disable-system-libffi

answered Oct 23 '20 at 15:22

Abhishek Sawant

41
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2

This works when installing the gem by itself, but not if `ffi` is being installed by `bundle install`. – Grant Birchmeier Feb 18 '21 at 23:15

score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 14 '15 at 21:48

3

you need this,

apt-get install ruby2.2-dev

answered Jul 14 '15 at 21:48

Arun Panneerselvam

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score 2 · Answer 11 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

2

Copied from another post:

As stated in Issue with installing ImageMagick and rmagick on Mountain Lion, ffi appears to be configured to look for 'gcc-4.2', so once I updated my Apple command line tools (which I may or may not have needed to do), I created a symbolic link to make the ffi install configuration happy:

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.2

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered Mar 28 '13 at 14:36

David Vezzani

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Worked perfectly after I installed the Apple CLI tools. – Wyatt May 22 '13 at 02:00

score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Dec 22 '20 at 00:42

2

This worked for me gem install ffi -- --disable-system-libffi on Ubuntu 20.04 (WSL)

answered Dec 22 '20 at 00:42

Marko S. González B.

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This works when installing the gem by itself, but not if `ffi` is being installed by `bundle install`. – Grant Birchmeier Feb 18 '21 at 23:15

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Apr 10 '20 at 15:53

1

On MacOS (Catalina), running brew install libtool first solved the problem for me.

answered Apr 10 '20 at 15:53

hamx0r

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Feb 07 '13 at 00:26

0

Put DevKit in front of your PATH, and install again from Windows command prompt.

answered Feb 07 '13 at 00:26

konyak

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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 06 '13 at 14:17

I got the same problem. In my case, I have not install the DevKit, which can be found: http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/. After installing DevKit, just follow the instruction https://github.com/oneclick/rubyinstaller/wiki/development-kit and finally it's up and running.

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Feb 16 '18 at 22:32

0

I had to install automake to get it working. Worked on both mac OSX as well as Ubuntu (CI machine).

answered Feb 16 '18 at 22:32

Vijay Raghavan Aravamudhan

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score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Nov 13 '22 at 13:17

0

Run this: /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Then: brew install cocoapods

answered Nov 13 '22 at 13:17

Taniksha Sharma

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As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Nov 16 '22 at 10:11

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

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