unable to install pg gem

Question

I tried using gem install pg but it doesn't seem to work.

gem install pg gives this error

Temporarily enhancing PATH to include DevKit...
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing pg:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

C:/Ruby/bin/ruby.exe 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.

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=C:/Ruby/bin/ruby
        --with-pg
        --without-pg
        --with-pg-dir
        --without-pg-dir
        --with-pg-include
        --without-pg-include=${pg-dir}/include
        --with-pg-lib
        --without-pg-lib=${pg-dir}/lib
        --with-pg-config
        --without-pg-config
        --with-pg_config
        --without-pg_config


Gem files will remain installed in C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/pg-0.10.1 for
inspection.
Results logged to C:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/pg-0.10.1/ext/gem_make.out

Answer 1

If you are using jruby instead of ruby you will have similar issues when installing the pg gem. Instead you need to install the adaptor:

gem 'activerecord-jdbcpostgresql-adapter'

Answer 2

If you are using Postgres.app on Mac, you may resolve this issue once and for all like this:

First gem uninstall pg, then edit your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshrc file or equivalent and add:

# PostgreSQL bin path
export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.4/bin

Then bundle install and gem install pg should both work as expected.

Answer 3

Regardless of what OS you are running, look at the logs file of the "Makefile" to see what is going on, instead of blindly installing stuff.

In my case, MAC OS, the log file is here:

/Users/za/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/extensions/x86_64-darwin-15/2.3.0-static/pg-1.0.0/mkmf.log

The logs indicated that the make file could not be created because of the following:

Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary
libraries and/or headers

Inside the mkmf.log, you will see that it could not find required libraries, to finish the build.

checking for pg_config... no
Can't find the 'libpq-fe.h header
blah blah

After running "brew install postgresql", I can see all required libraries being there:

za:myapp za$ cat /Users/za/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/extensions/x86_64-darwin-15/2.3.0-static/pg-1.0.0/mkmf.log | grep yes
find_executable: checking for pg_config... -------------------- yes
find_header: checking for libpq-fe.h... -------------------- yes
find_header: checking for libpq/libpq-fs.h... -------------------- yes
find_header: checking for pg_config_manual.h... -------------------- yes
have_library: checking for PQconnectdb() in -lpq... -------------------- yes
have_func: checking for PQsetSingleRowMode()... -------------------- yes
have_func: checking for PQconninfo()... -------------------- yes
have_func: checking for PQsslAttribute()... -------------------- yes
have_func: checking for PQencryptPasswordConn()... -------------------- yes
have_const: checking for PG_DIAG_TABLE_NAME in libpq-fe.h... -------------------- yes
have_header: checking for unistd.h... -------------------- yes
have_header: checking for inttypes.h... -------------------- yes
checking for C99 variable length arrays... -------------------- yes

Answer 4

You just go to here to see if your pg version support Win32 platform, then use this command to install:

gem install pg -v 0.14.1 --platform=x86-mingw32

Answer 5

$ PATH=$PATH:/Library/PostgreSQL/9.1/bin sudo gem install pg

replace the 9.1 for the version installed on your system.

Answer 6

Work in my case, i use ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS

sudo apt-get install libpq-dev

and i use

Ruby 2.2.2 & Rails 4.2.1