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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-27T05:08:09+00:00

I have been trying to install the Ruby PG gem, but kept getting the

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I have been trying to install the Ruby PG gem, but kept getting the “Failed to build gem native extension.” error.

After sifting through a lot of google results, I tried nearly every recommendation I came across, all without luck. However, I believe I’ve tracked down the source of the problem … Homebrew.

Homebrew installed PostgreSQL 9.0.4, but only with the 32-bit libraries. As I am running Snow Leopard (10.6.8) with XCode 3.26, I need the 64-bit libraries in order to compile everything without library mismatch errors. But I cannot seem to find out how to force Homebrew to install them, even with ARCHFLAGS and ENV set to “-arch x86_64”.

Suggestions, please 🙂

p.s. I found out that I only had 32-bit libraries installed by running:

file /usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.0.4/lib/libpq.5.3.dylib

which returned:

/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.0.4/lib/libpq.5.3.dylib: Mach-O dynamically linked shared library i386

Update: re-installed Homebrew, which installed postgresql/9.1.1 and 64-bit shared libraries.

But another problem emerged, while installing the PG gem. For some reason it was looking for ginstall in /opt/local/bin. As I had removed MacPorts, that directory was also removed. I did find this solution:

mkdir -p /opt/local/bin/
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/install /opt/local/bin/ginstall

And now everything seems to be working ….

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    So it looks like my first install, using Homebrew, must have been done with regular Leopard.

    Removing the Homebrew “Cell” directory and all of its contents, running the install script again, then doing “brew install” and “brew update” with all needed packages, got me the latest version of PostgreSQL, with 64-bit developer library.

    And creating the above symbolic link fixed any left over errors from the MacPorts removal.

    Now all is well 🙂

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