How do I install ruby gem libxml without 'extconf failure: need libxml2'

Question

I'm currently trying to install a ruby gem which fails because extconf says it needs libxml, so when I follow these instructions to install libxml (which includes these instructions for the ruby dev kit installation) I get the following output:

$ gem install libxml-ruby --platform x86-mswin32-60
Temporarily enhancing PATH to include DevKit...
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing libxml-ruby:
    ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    c:/Ruby/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb
checking for socket() in -lsocket... no
checking for gethostbyname() in -lnsl... no
checking for atan() in -lm... yes
checking for inflate() in -lz... no
checking for inflate() in -lzlib... no
checking for inflate() in -lzlib1... yes
checking for iconv_open() in -liconv... no
checking for libiconv_open() in -liconv... yes
checking for xmlParseDoc() in -lxml2... no
checking for xmlParseDoc() in -llibxml2... no
checking for xmlParseDoc() in -lxml2... no
*** 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
--8<--
    --with-xml2lib
    --without-xml2lib
 extconf failure: need libxml2.

Install the library or try one of the following options to extconf.rb:

  --with-xml2-config=/path/to/xml2-config
  --with-xml2-dir=/path/to/libxml2
  --with-xml2-lib=/path/to/libxml2/lib
  --with-xml2-include=/path/to/libxml2/include

Gem files will remain installed in c:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/libxml-ruby-2.2.2 for inspection.
Results logged to c:/Ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/libxml-ruby-2.2.2/ext/libxml/gem_make.out

I'm on a Windows 7 x64 install using my minGW32-shell/git to install. The install fails with the same message from the windows ruby-enhanced command promt.

fwiw:

$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.2p290 (2011-07-09) [i386-mingw32]

$ git --version
git version 1.7.6.msysgit.0

$ gem -v
1.8.10

Answer 1

You should try the nokogiri gem instead of using libxml-ruby. It includes the precompiled libxml2 dlls as part of the installation, so you don't have to worry about building it yourself.

Nokogiri's API is different from libxml-ruby's, but I'm sure you'll find the same functionality.

If libxml-ruby is a dependency for another gem or app, you probably can't use nokogiri. What are you trying to do?

Answer 2

I had this as a comment, but was asked to post it as an answer for visibility:

The answer to this question solved my problem: libxml-ruby failed to load at x86_64