Error installing jekyll: Failed to build gem native extension

Written on October 31, 2013 by Flo Preynat

I have been wanting to give Jekyll a go for ages, and when I saw Seth’s post last night (although I’m not on Mavericks yet), I decided that a new install attempt of the static website generator would be on my morning’s todo list, having tried on many occasions to install the fu**er, unsuccessfully.

Right, so you have it all installed. So you think. As advised on the jekyll site, you’ve done your:

sudo gem update --system

Xcode and its command line tools are in there, but you still get an error while running:

sudo gem install jekyll

something like:

Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing jekyll:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

It appears that the installation order is vital, and therefore you should try to uninstall ruby, start from a clean situation, and reinstall it.

It did fix it for me, so have a try if you’re stuck and you’re a numpty like me when it comes down to gems, CLI, and the rest.

Start with:

rvm get head
rvm reset

Then check what’s in there with:

rvm list

Note what ruby version is installed, in my case it was ruby-2.0.0-p247.

rvm remove ruby-2.0.0-p247
rvm cleanup
rvm repair

Only then go with:

sudo gem update --system
sudo gem install jekyll

Hope this helps.
Cheerio.

My name is Flo Preynat and I am the freelance webdesigner and developer behind shoogle designs. I live in France and specialize in responsive web design. Give me a shoogle or get in touch with me on twitter.

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