Question

Since this morning I can’t install the sqlite3 gem on my rails projects…

when I run gem install sqlite3 I get

Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing sqlite3:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

        /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/bin/ruby extconf.rb
checking for sqlite3.h... *** 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
        --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=/Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/bin/ruby
        --with-sqlite3-dir
        --without-sqlite3-dir
        --with-sqlite3-include
        --without-sqlite3-include=${sqlite3-dir}/include
        --with-sqlite3-lib
        --without-sqlite3-lib=${sqlite3-dir}/lib
        --enable-local
        --disable-local
/Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:381:in `try_do': The compiler failed to generate an executable file. (RuntimeError)
You have to install development tools first.
        from /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:506:in `try_cpp'
        from /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:970:in `block in find_header'
        from /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:790:in `block in checking_for'
        from /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:284:in `block (2 levels) in postpone'
        from /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:254:in `open'
        from /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:284:in `block in postpone'
        from /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:254:in `open'
        from /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:280:in `postpone'
        from /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:789:in `checking_for'
        from /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:969:in `find_header'
        from extconf.rb:34:in `<main>'


Gem files will remain installed in /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/sqlite3-1.3.6 for inspection.
Results logged to /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/sqlite3-1.3.6/ext/sqlite3/gem_make.out

After searching for the problem I found almost similar problems fixed with gem install sqlite3 -- --with-sqlite3-dir=/opt/local but it tells me
ERROR: While executing gem ... (Errno::EACCES)
Permission denied - /Users/Jonathan/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/sqlite3-1.3.6/API_CHANGES.rdoc

I pretty new to programming/terminal/etc. so I don’t really know what to do. I did other projects without any problem or error, and I don’t think I changed anything… I just started to do the blog application from the rails guide, and went through an error about sqlite3 when I ran rake db:create.

Answer 1

In the end it was some permissions problems etc. Didn’t find how to fix it so I just reinstalled all my environment by running RailsInstaller, reinstalling Xcode and the Command line tool, and clearing what brew doctor told me to do.

now it works again 🙂