ruby-debug Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary libraries and/or headers

Question

My Rails is 3.2.1.4, Ruby is 1.9.3p448.

I got an error when I install ruby-debug:

Building native extensions.  This could take a while... ERROR:  Error installing ruby-debug:         ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.      /home/hxh/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p448/bin/ruby extconf.rb Can't handle 1.9.x yet *** 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=/home/hxh/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p448/bin/ruby   Gem files will remain installed in /home/hxh/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p448/gems/linecache-0.46 for inspection. Results logged to /home/hxh/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p448/gems/linecache-0.46/ext/gem_make.out 

Who can tell me where the error is?

Answer 1

The error is in the mkmf.log file. That file should be located at /home/hxh/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p448/gems/linecache-0.46/ext/linecache/mkmf.log.

If not, you can use

sudo find / -name mkmf.log 

to find it.

To troubleshoot further, see "How to install Nokogiri Ruby gem with mkmf.log saying libiconv not found?"

Answer 2

I am using Mac El Capitan. In my case it was caused by the missing developer tool. I solved it by installing the developer tool via xcode-select --install. After that bundle install worked fine again.