Why does installing Nokogiri on Mac OS fail with l

Question

I've been trying to install Nokogiri on Mac OS 10.9.3 and whatever I try, the install fails in the end with the following error message:

$ sudo gem install nokogiri -- --with-xml2-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/include/libxml2 --with-xml2-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/lib --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.28 --with-iconv-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/include --with-iconv-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/lib
Building native extensions with: '--with-xml2-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/include/libxml2 --with-xml2-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/lib --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.28 --with-iconv-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/include --with-iconv-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/lib'
This could take a while...
Building nokogiri using packaged libraries.
ERROR:  Error installing nokogiri:
    ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb --with-xml2-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/include/libxml2 --with-xml2-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/lib --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.28 --with-iconv-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/include --with-iconv-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/lib
Building nokogiri using packaged libraries.
checking for iconv.h... yes
checking for iconv_open() in iconv.h... no
checking for iconv_open() in -liconv... no
checking for libiconv_open() in iconv.h... no
checking for libiconv_open() in -liconv... no
-----
libiconv is missing.  please visit http://nokogiri.org/tutorials/installing_nokogiri.html for help with installing dependencies.
-----
*** 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.

Provided configuration options:
    --with-opt-dir
    --without-opt-dir
    --with-opt-include
    --without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
    --with-opt-lib
    --without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
    --with-make-prog
    --without-make-prog
    --srcdir=.
    --curdir
    --ruby=/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/bin/ruby
    --help
    --clean
    --use-system-libraries
    --enable-static
    --disable-static
    --with-zlib-dir
    --without-zlib-dir
    --with-zlib-include
    --without-zlib-include=${zlib-dir}/include
    --with-zlib-lib
    --without-zlib-lib=${zlib-dir}/lib
    --enable-cross-build
    --disable-cross-build


Gem files will remain installed in /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/nokogiri-1.6.2.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/nokogiri-1.6.2.1/ext/nokogiri/gem_make.out

After following a lot of help found around the web including building and installing libxml2 and libxslt using brew and building libiconv from the sources (as described in "Installing Nokogiri"), the error remains the same.

When trying to run the installation for Nokogiri, libxml2 and libxslt seem to be found fine, but not libiconv.

Anyone with a better knowledge of these things know how to get Nokogiri installed?

Answer 1

I had to install gcc first before running ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.13.1

Answer 2

Assuming you installed libxml2 and libxslt with MacPorts, then you might still be getting this error due to a mismatch of the order of include paths and link paths used by the call to have_func('iconv_open', 'iconv.h')

Simple (patch) solution: delete libiconv.* in /usr/local/lib

Answer 3

HOMEBREW USERS

Correct solution to fix this problem if you are using homebrew:

xcode-select --install

Choose "Get Xcode" from the dialog box.

brew unlink libiconv
gem install nokogiri

The xcode-select step fixes your Xcode installation and Xcode Command Line Utils installation. I found that I didn't have /usr/include/iconv.h due to some kind of problem with O/S upgrades or restores from backups. If you don't have that header file and /usr/lib/libconv.dylib after running xcode-select then you most likely need to drag Xcode from the Application folder to the trash and reinstall and then manually download the Command Line Tools for Xcode from https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action and install that.

Then you need to unlink the libiconv from homebrew. You don't need this. And clang will actually pick up /usr/local/include/iconv.h over /usr/include/iconv.h and will #define iconv_open to libiconv_open but then link against /usr/lib/libiconv.dylib which does not have libiconv_open which is what causes the mkmf failures to find libiconv. What you need to do is remove the linking in of iconv.h so that nokogiri will not find it.

Then just build nokogiri normally.

For new users, all you should need to do is install xcode with xcode-select and install nokogiri, but if you've found this question then presumably you've got a botched installation and not a fresh install of Mavericks.

Some of the other answers here are definitely incorrect. Most of them attempt to use libiconv out of homebrew which is entirely unnecessary. The answers that brew link libiconv are actually causing the problem where clang becomes confused and tries to read a homebrew header file and link against the system libraries. The answers which suggest --use-system-libraries are poor because nokogiri needs to be linked against its bundled libxml2 and libxslt libraries because other versions of those libraries are incompatible with it. The answers which want you to compile from sources are just hopelessly overly complicated.

TL;DR:

• Upgrade and/or repair your Xcode installation
• Unlink your homebrew libiconv since trying to use that only causes problems
• Build nokogiri normally

RVM USERS

Old RVM installations may have a libiconv hiding in your rvm directories somewhere which are conflicting with your system libraries. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/11809261/506908 for more information.

MacPorts USERS

If you have /opt/local/lib/libiconv.dylib then nokogiri adds that path to the list of directories that it searches for and it will find the MacPorts installation similar to how it picks up the homebrew libiconv and conflicts with the system libraries. You can try:

sudo port uninstall libiconv

If that fails due to dependencies then you can try linking against the MacPorts version directly (untested):

gem install nokogiri -- --with-iconv-dir=/opt/local

Answer 4

You could also do this on Mavericks:

gem install nokogiri -- --use-system-libraries=true --with-xml2-include=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.9.sdk/usr/include/libxml2

Just make sure you have xcode installed

Answer 5

I got this issue when I upgraded my Mac OS to Yosemite. I was able to solve this issue by doing:

xcode-select --install
brew uninstall libiconv
brew install libiconv
gem install nokogiri

Answer 6

$ gem install iconv # works but it is missing an iconv.so file in ruby 2.0.0-p247

$ ls -1 2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/*/*/*.so
2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/ext/iconv/iconv.so*
2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/lib/iconv/iconv.so*

$ ls -1 2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/*/*/*.so
2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/ext/iconv/iconv.so*

NOTE THE MISSING /lib/iconv/iconv.so file in 2.0.0-p247 that is present in 2.0.0-p0 gems installation.

$ rbenv version
2.0.0-p247 (set by /home/XXX/tmp/.ruby-version)
$ rbenv which gem
/home/XXX/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p247/bin/gem
$ gem --version
1.8.25

$ rbenv which pry
/home/XXX/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p247/bin/pry
$ pry
[1] pry(main)> require 'iconv'
LoadError: cannot load such file -- iconv/iconv.so
from /home/XXX/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'

Copy the file over

$ pushd ~/.rbenv/versions/
$ cp 2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/ext/iconv/iconv.so 2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/lib/iconv/

NOW IT WORKS!

$ pry
[1] pry(main)> require 'iconv'
=> true