Question

After getting Xcode rvm install 1.9.3 works totally fine. However, rvm install 1.8.7 throws the following error.

~ ☺  rvm install 1.8.7
Installing Ruby from source to: /Users/jordanscales/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p358, this may take a while depending on your cpu(s)...

ruby-1.8.7-p358 - #fetching 
ruby-1.8.7-p358 - #extracting ruby-1.8.7-p358 to /Users/jordanscales/.rvm/src/ruby-1.8.7-p358
Error running 'tar xjf /Users/jordanscales/.rvm/archives/ruby-1.8.7-p358.tar.bz2 -C /Users/jordanscales/.rvm/tmp/rvm_src_30581 ', please read /Users/jordanscales/.rvm/log/ruby-1.8.7-p358/extract.log
There has been an error while trying to extract the source.  
Halting the installation.
There has been an error fetching the ruby interpreter. Halting the installation.
Please be aware that you just installed a ruby that requires        2 patches just to be compiled on up to date linux system.
This may have known and unaccounted for security vulnerabilities.
Please consider upgrading to Ruby 1.9.3-194 which will have all of the latest security patches.
~ ☺ 

The log reads

[2012-06-04 17:06:23] tar xjf /Users/jordanscales/.rvm/archives/ruby-1.8.7-p358.tar.bz2 -C /Users/jordanscales/.rvm/tmp/rvm_src_30581 
ruby-1.8.7-p358/lib/test/unit/ui/gtk/testrunner.rb: (Empty error message)
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors.

Any idea how to fix? I’ve tried rvm get head, installing gcc-4.2 and using that, using clang, etc. But nothing seems to work.

Answer 1

Make sure to satisfy all requirements specified by:

rvm requirements

Including Xcode 4.1 or osx-gcc-installer

Run (to fix broken download):

rvm cleanup archives

and try again:

rvm reinstall 1.8.7

Is there any reason why you are going with 1.8.7? it’s about at end of life and 1.9.3 should be used instead if this is not an requirement.