Invalid Podfile file unexpected template EOS

Question

i have battling with this error for days now, trying to start up at a new job. Having issues while trying to run pod install on a react native cli project, i have tried every possible solution on here, doesnt work with mine.

The errors:

[!] Invalid `Podfile` file: /Users/decagon/kumoafrica/node_modules/react-native/scripts/react_native_pods_utils/script_phases.rb:39: syntax error, unexpected <<
    template =<<~EOS
                ^
/Users/decagon/kumoafrica/node_modules/react-native/scripts/react_native_pods_utils/script_phases.rb:40: unknown regexp options - ll
/Users/decagon/kumoafrica/node_modules/react-native/scripts/react_native_pods_utils/script_phases.rb:41: dynamic constant assignment
        RCT_SCRIPT_POD_INSTALLATION_ROOT=$(pwd)
                                         ^
/Users/decagon/kumoafrica/node_modules/react-native/scripts/react_native_pods_utils/script_phases.rb:41: `$(' is not allowed as a global variable name
/Users/decagon/kumoafrica/node_modules/react-native/scripts/react_native_pods_utils/script_phases.rb:41: syntax error, unexpected end-of-input
        RCT_SCRIPT_POD_INSTALLATION_ROOT=$(pwd)
                                          ^.

 #  from /Users/decagon/kumoafrica/ios/Podfile:1
 #  -------------------------------------------
 >  require_relative '../node_modules/react-native/scripts/react_native_pods'
 #  require_relative '../node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-ios/native_modules'
 #  -------------------------------------------

The podfile:

require_relative '../node_modules/react-native/scripts/react_native_pods'
require_relative '../node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-ios/native_modules'

platform :ios, '11.0'
install! 'cocoapods', :deterministic_uuids => false

target 'kumo' do
  config = use_native_modules!

  # Flags change depending on the env values.
  flags = get_default_flags()

  use_react_native!(
    :path => config[:reactNativePath],
    # to enable hermes on iOS, change `false` to `true` and then install pods
    :hermes_enabled => flags[:hermes_enabled],
    :fabric_enabled => flags[:fabric_enabled],
    # An absolute path to your application root.
    :app_path => "#{Pod::Config.instance.installation_root}/.."
  )

  target 'kumoTests' do
    inherit! :complete
    # Pods for testing
  end

  # Enables Flipper.
  #
  # Note that if you have use_frameworks! enabled, Flipper will not work and
  # you should disable the next line.
  use_flipper!()

  post_install do |installer|
    react_native_post_install(installer)
    __apply_Xcode_12_5_M1_post_install_workaround(installer)
  end
end

package.json:

{
  "name": "kumo",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "private": true,
  "scripts": {
    "android": "react-native run-android",
    "ios": "react-native run-ios",
    "start": "react-native start",
    "test": "jest",
    "lint": "eslint . --ext .js,.jsx,.ts,.tsx"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "react": "17.0.2",
    "react-native": "0.68.1"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@babel/core": "^7.12.9",
    "@babel/runtime": "^7.12.5",
    "@react-native-community/eslint-config": "^2.0.0",
    "@types/jest": "^26.0.23",
    "@types/react-native": "^0.67.3",
    "@types/react-test-renderer": "^17.0.1",
    "@typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin": "^5.17.0",
    "@typescript-eslint/parser": "^5.17.0",
    "babel-jest": "^26.6.3",
    "eslint": "^7.32.0",
    "jest": "^26.6.3",
    "metro-react-native-babel-preset": "^0.67.0",
    "react-test-renderer": "17.0.2",
    "typescript": "^4.4.4"
  },
  "resolutions": {
    "@types/react": "^17"
  },
  "jest": {
    "preset": "react-native",
    "moduleFileExtensions": [
      "ts",
      "tsx",
      "js",
      "jsx",
      "json",
      "node"
    ]
  }
}

if anything else is needed ask, please help.

Answer 1

Don't know if this is helpful now but if you're running React Native from scratch on a M1 Chip machine I was able to fix this issue by doing:

cd ios
bundle install
bundle exec pod install

After hours of struggle this was the way to actually make for pod install work for me.

This same example can be found here: https://reactnative.dev/docs/environment-setup under the "Creating a new application" section.

Answer 2

I was seeing this error as I was having a wrong version of cocoapods or pod. I somehow installed cocoapods from cask using brew install --cask cocoapods and that had an outdated version - 1.5.2 while latest version(at the time of writing) was 1.12.0

To fix this issue, I had to then uninstall outdated cocoapods package using brew uninstall --cask cocoapods and reinstalled a latest version using brew install cocoapods and then do brew link cocoapods

PS: You can check versions using pod --version