Cannot isntall jekyll: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension

[d-jiao]

Here’s the error message

I’m running it on MacOS 15.3.2 (24D81), following the exact steps in Jekyll on macOS | Jekyll • Simple, blog-aware, static sites.

Have searched for all the fixes on this forum/stackoverflow/github/reddit and none of them solve the issue

[d-jiao]

here’s the environment of my gem. fingers-crossed that someone could help me out

[rdyar]

that error I think happens when you don’t have the dev tools needed to build native extensions. I’m not a mac user so not sure how it works there, but on a pc there are 2 ways to install ruby, with and without the dev tools. If you install it without the devtools you get that error.

Lots of people have issues on macs as they have a built in ruby and then they install ruby again and it gets hard to tell which is which?

Your second screen shot sort of looks like you have 2 versions installed - 3.4.0 and 3.4.1 but I am not positive about that.

see if you can find anything about ruby dev tools on a mac. I’m sure there are other threads in here with a solution, seems to come up fairly often.

[rdyar]

this thread has a note about needing xcode command tools which I think is your issue.

Installing Jekyll on Mac

Correct, the version of ruby pre-installed with Sonoma even is a mere ruby 2.6.10. Hardly capable to run the latest Jekyll. As far as maintaining a user-installed version of ruby separate from the system, I recommend a package manager, which requires pretty extensive use of the command line. Getting somewhat familiar with homebrew is a must, however as great as it is, lacks some of the advanced capabilities required to slot multiple installations of ruby into a user’s home directory and manage…

[d-jiao]

thanks for the reply! the xcode command line doesn’t seem to be the key cause of the issue

I do have them readily available

[d-jiao]

if i do xcode-select --install as suggested by other threads, i’m told that it’s already installed

[rdyar]

then i would look into whether you have more than one ruby installed - it sort of looked like you did but I’m not positive. more than one ruby installation can cause issues if they are not managed by a ruby version manager. Maybe one has access to the tools and the other doesn’t?

[ashmaroli]

Try the solutions discussed in this GitHub issue ticket:

eventmachine(1.2.7) installation issue on Intel mac with ruby 3.3.0

[d-jiao]

@rdyar

more than one ruby

@ashmaroli

Try the solutions discussed in this GitHub issue ticket:

Thanks both. I tried to reinstall everything related to ruby and reinstalled xcode as per the discussion, and the error went away. Not sure which trick makes the material help.

[ibkevg]

My theory is if Ruby is installed before the command line compiler tools are configured, and then you configure the command line tools, the only way to get Ruby to know about the compiler tools is to uninstall Ruby and reinstall.

Error with eventmachine

Solution is here: eventmachine(1.2.7) installation issue on Intel mac with ruby 3.3.0 · Issue #990 · eventmachine/eventmachine · GitHub My guess is that the C++ compiler on your system is autodetected while installing Ruby and it doesn’t check again, if something about it is not setup right at that point, then subsequent gem installs that require it, like eventmachine, won’t work. This is why the fix is two steps: uninstall Ruby, get the Apple command-line tools setup properly and working prop…