ERROR: Error installing cocoapods: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension

cocoapods installation failed¶

The use of Alamofire needs to be based on CocoaPods, but I encountered many problems in the process of trying to install CocoaPods. After a long time, I failed. In the end, the installation was successful after the group’s on-demand broadcast. In fact, sometimes the solution to the problem is very simple. I hope This blog post can help you.

Complete error

yusael@air ~ % sudo gem install -n /usr/local/bin cocoapods
Fetching cocoapods-trunk-1.6.0.gem
Fetching cocoapods-search-1.0.1.gem
Fetching cocoapods-plugins-1.0.0.gem
Fetching cocoapods-try-1.2.0.gem
Fetching cocoapods-downloader-1.5.1.gem
Fetching cocoapods-deintegrate-1.0.5.gem
Successfully installed cocoapods-try-1.2.0
Successfully installed cocoapods-trunk-1.6.0
Successfully installed cocoapods-search-1.0.1
Successfully installed cocoapods-plugins-1.0.0
Successfully installed cocoapods-downloader-1.5.1
Successfully installed cocoapods-deintegrate-1.0.5
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing cocoapods:
    ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    current directory: /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/ffi-1.15.4/ext/ffi_c
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/bin/ruby -I /Library/Ruby/Site/2.6.0 -r ./siteconf20211110-79554-472vcj.rb extconf.rb
checking for ffi.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
    --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=/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/bin/$(RUBY_BASE_NAME)
    --with-ffi_c-dir
    --without-ffi_c-dir
    --with-ffi_c-include
    --without-ffi_c-include=${ffi_c-dir}/include
    --with-ffi_c-lib
    --without-ffi_c-lib=${ffi_c-dir}/lib
    --enable-system-libffi
    --disable-system-libffi
    --with-libffi-config
    --without-libffi-config
    --with-pkg-config
    --without-pkg-config
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:467:in `try_do': The compiler failed to generate an executable file. (RuntimeError)
You have to install development tools first.
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:585:in `block in try_compile'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:534:in `with_werror'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:585:in `try_compile'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:1109:in `block in have_header'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:959:in `block in checking_for'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:361:in `block (2 levels) in postpone'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:331:in `open'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:361:in `block in postpone'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:331:in `open'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:357:in `postpone'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:958:in `checking_for'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:1108:in `have_header'
    from extconf.rb:10:in `system_libffi_usable?'
    from extconf.rb:42:in `<main>'

To see why this extension failed to compile, please check the mkmf.log which can be found here:

  /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/extensions/universal-darwin-20/2.6.0/ffi-1.15.4/mkmf.log

extconf failed, exit code 1

Gem files will remain installed in /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/ffi-1.15.4 for inspection.
Results logged to /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/extensions/universal-darwin-20/2.6.0/ffi-1.15.4/gem_make.out

Try to install¶

Steps: first install homebrew, then update Ruby, and then install cocoapods

Note: Many online blogs require rvm to be installed. In fact, rvm is not necessary, it is just a way to update Ruby.

my problem¶

Generally speaking, the installation can be basically completed according to the above process. Let me talk about my problem here. My problem is that the Ruby version is too low. Before the installation was successful, my version was 2.6.3p62. After I updated the Ruby version to 3.0.2_1, execute: sudo gem install -n /usr/ local/bin cocoapods is installed successfully!

The main problem here is that the latest Ruby is updated through Homebrew, but it may not be the latest when used, which causes the installation to fail.

Here are two ways to configure Ruby environment variables:

method 1:¶

echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

method 2:¶

echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile

Use ruby -v to check whether the Ruby version is updated, and try to install it after updating to the latest one...