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

Question

Run following command

 brew cleanup -d -v 

Then run below command

brew install cocoapods 

Note: If you see failed to link then run brew link cocoapods

This is how it get solved for me

For someone who is having m1 chip system they need to run this via Rosetta

select Terminal and press cmd(⌘)+I and check the "Open using Rosetta" option. ( For m1 chip based mac )

First, check the version of Ruby you are using.

$ruby -v
ruby 2.7.1p83 (2020-03-31 revision a0c7c23c9c) [x86_64-darwin18]
$ which ruby
usr/bin/ruby

Now use Homebrew to install the latest Ruby.

$ brew install ruby
==> ruby
By default, binaries installed by gem will be placed into:
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/2.7.0/bin

You may want to add this to your PATH.

ruby is keg-only, which means it was not symlinked into /usr/local,
because macOS already provides this software and installing another version in
parallel can cause all kinds of trouble.

If you need to have ruby first in your PATH run:

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

For compilers to find ruby you may need to set:

$ export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/ruby/lib"
$ export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/ruby/include"

Follow the instructions to set PATH. Now you will go to see the installed Ruby. Make sure to replace the 'xxx' with your username.

$ echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin:$PATH"' >> /Users/xxx/.bash_profile
$ echo 'export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/ruby/lib"' >> ~/.bash_profile
$ echo 'export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/ruby/include"' >> ~/.bash_profile

$ source ~/.bash_profile

Finally, Make sure your PATH is in place.

$ ruby -v
ruby 2.7.1p83 (2020-03-31 revision a0c7c23c9c) [x86_64-darwin18]
$ which ruby
/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin/ruby

You're good to go! Make sure you install by specifying the save destination as follows.

$ sudo gem install -n /usr/local/bin cocoapods

You need to install Xcode's developer tools. The easiest way to do this is through terminal (this question)

xcode-select --install

if you're also seeing error: active developer path .. does not exist you may also have to do this

$ sudo xcode-select --reset