CocoaPods installation failed "Failed to build gem native extension"

Question

I cannot install the cocoapods to my Mac Catalina by the following command:

sudo gem install cocoapods

Here is the error message from the terminal:

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-1.13.1/ext/ffi_c
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/bin/ruby -I /Library/Ruby/Site/2.6.0 -r ./siteconf20201117-5613-1jjoznr.rb extconf.rb
*** 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:546:in `block in try_link0'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/tmpdir.rb:93:in `mktmpdir'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:543:in `try_link0'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:570:in `try_link'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:672:in `try_ldflags'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/mkmf.rb:1832:in `pkg_config'
    from extconf.rb:9: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-19/2.6.0/ffi-1.13.1/mkmf.log

extconf failed, exit code 1

Here is the error shown at the /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/extensions/universal-darwin-19/2.6.0/ffi-1.13.1/mkmf.log:

| pkg-config --libs libffi
=> "-lffi\n"
"xcrun clang -o conftest -I/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX11.0.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/include/ruby-2.6.0/universal-darwin19 -I/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX11.0.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/include/ruby-2.6.0/ruby/backward -I/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX11.0.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/include/ruby-2.6.0 -I. -D_XOPEN_SOURCE -D_DARWIN_C_SOURCE -D_DARWIN_UNLIMITED_SELECT -D_REENTRANT    -g -Os -pipe -DHAVE_GCC_ATOMIC_BUILTINS conftest.c  -L. -L/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib -L. -L/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.15.Internal.sdk/usr/local/lib   -arch x86_64   -lruby.2.6   "
In file included from conftest.c:1:
In file included from /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX11.0.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/include/ruby-2.6.0/ruby.h:33:
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX11.0.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/include/ruby-2.6.0/ruby/ruby.h:24:10: fatal error: 'ruby/config.h' file not found
#include "ruby/config.h"
         ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX11.0.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/include/ruby-2.6.0/ruby/ruby.h:24:10: note: did not find header 'config.h' in framework 'ruby' (loaded from '/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX10.15.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks')
1 error generated.
checked program was:
/* begin */
1: #include "ruby.h"
2: 
3: int main(int argc, char **argv)
4: {
5:   return 0;
6: }
/* end */

I have installed the Xcode 12.2(12B45b) to Mac and selected it as the Command Line Tools. I am very confused with these messages. Thank you very much !!!

Answer 1

Checkout this post stackoverflow. If it doesn't work, try sudo less installation, here's the link for that cocoapods sudo less installation

Answer 2

I had the same problem. What happened for me is that my Mac didn't have the latest version of Ruby installed. If you update your Mac it should update to at least Ruby 2.7 which will be able to run the command successfully.

Answer 3

I had the same issue when configuring Flutter on MacOS and fixed it by using brew command :

brew install cocoapods