Gem libxml-ruby (1.1.4) installs but fails on runtime

Question

I'm trying to run one quite old Rails application on Mavericks where one of the requirements are: - Ruby ree-1.8.7-2009.10 - Rails 3.0.0 - libxml-ruby 1.1.4 (that's the latest version compatible with the rest of the gems.

I have latest libxml2 package installed. It's version from Homebrew (2.9.1).

To install this gem I used following command:

$ CC=gcc-4.2 gem install libxml-ruby -v '1.1.4'

Output suggested success:

Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Successfully installed libxml-ruby-1.1.4
1 gem installed

though when I try run some rake task, i.e. creating database bundle exec rake db:create

I get following error:

$ bundle exec rake db:create                                                                                               [ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset]
rake aborted!
dlsym(0x7ffa2d83bbe0, Init_libxml_ruby): symbol not found - /Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/libxml-ruby-1.1.4/lib/libxml_ruby.bundle
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/libxml-ruby-1.1.4/lib/libxml_ruby.bundle
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:242:in `require'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:225:in `load_dependency'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:597:in `new_constants_in'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:225:in `load_dependency'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:242:in `require'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/libxml-ruby-1.1.4/lib/libxml.rb:9
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:242:in `require'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:242:in `require'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:225:in `load_dependency'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:597:in `new_constants_in'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:225:in `load_dependency'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:242:in `require'
/Users/myuser/Developer/my-project/vendor/private_gems/restful_authentication-1.4.9/lib/sso/sso.rb:3
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:242:in `require'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:242:in `require'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:225:in `load_dependency'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:597:in `new_constants_in'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:225:in `load_dependency'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@mygemset/gems/activesupport-3.0.20/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:242:in `require'
/Users/myuser/Developer/my-project/vendor/private_gems/restful_authentication-1.4.9/lib/restful_sso_authentication.rb:2
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@global/gems/bundler-1.5.2/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:76:in `require'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@global/gems/bundler-1.5.2/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:76:in `require'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@global/gems/bundler-1.5.2/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:72:in `each'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@global/gems/bundler-1.5.2/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:72:in `require'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@global/gems/bundler-1.5.2/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:61:in `each'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@global/gems/bundler-1.5.2/lib/bundler/runtime.rb:61:in `require'
/Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2009.10@global/gems/bundler-1.5.2/lib/bundler.rb:131:in `require'
/Users/myuser/Developer/my-project/config/application.rb:5
/Users/myuser/Developer/my-project/Rakefile:6:in `require'
/Users/myuser/Developer/my-project/Rakefile:6
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

I have tried numerous approaches that can be found on Internet (the most relevant examples concerned problems with installing Nokogiri and similar errors where listed) and none of them worked.

Answer 1

Here is my way to install Rubies on variety of Mac OSes for long long time. For me, there were any no problems with any library or gem. For example more complex Nokogiri gem builds and works like a charm.

Check XCode version

xcodebuild -version
xcode-select --install

Install Homebrew as per it's documentation

Install prerequisites

brew doctor; # Just do what it wants!
brew update;
brew upgrade; # Watch out! for existing bottles
brew install libtool libxml2 libxslt openssl sqlite libyaml;
brew install autoconf automake apple-gcc42;
brew cleanup; # Watch out! for existing bottles
brew tap homebrew/dupes; # Watch out! for existing bottles

Install RVM

curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable # Latest stable
rvm get latest
rvm reload # :)
rvm autolibs enable
rvm requirements

Install Ruby

rvm install 2.1 --disable-binary