Can't find the 'libpq-fe.h header when trying to install pg gem

Question

I am using the Ruby on Rails 3.1 pre version. I like to use PostgreSQL, but the problem is installing the pg gem. It gives me the following error:

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

        /home/u/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p0/bin/ruby extconf.rb
checking for pg_config... no
No pg_config... trying anyway. If building fails, please try again with
 --with-pg-config=/path/to/pg_config
checking for libpq-fe.h... no
Can't find the 'libpq-fe.h header
*** 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/u/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p0/bin/ruby
    --with-pg
    --without-pg
    --with-pg-dir
    --without-pg-dir
    --with-pg-include
    --without-pg-include=${pg-dir}/include
    --with-pg-lib
    --without-pg-lib=${pg-dir}/lib
    --with-pg-config
    --without-pg-config
    --with-pg_config
    --without-pg_config
    Gem files will remain installed in /home/u/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p0/gems/pg-0.11.0 for inspection.
    Results logged to /home/u/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p0/gems/pg-0.11.0/ext/gem_make.out

How do I solve this problem?

Thorite

can you prove that you have pg installed? – Nozicka

Answer 1

It looks like in Ubuntu that header is part of the libpq-dev package (at least in the following Ubuntu versions: 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), 10.04 (Lucid Lynx), 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot), 12.04 (Precise Pangolin), 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) and 18.04 (Bionic Beaver)):

...
/usr/include/postgresql/libpq-fe.h
...

So try installing libpq-dev or its equivalent for your OS:

• For Ubuntu/Debian systems: sudo apt-get install libpq-dev
• On Red Hat Linux (RHEL) systems: yum install postgresql-devel
• For Mac Homebrew: brew install postgresql
• For Mac MacPorts PostgreSQL: gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=/opt/local/lib/postgresql[version number]/bin/pg_config
• For OpenSuse: zypper in postgresql-devel
• For ArchLinux: pacman -S postgresql-libs

Wiggins

didn't work for me on ubuntu 11.04 durrantm@castleLinux2011:~/Dropbox_not_syncd/webs/3/linker$ gem install libpq-dev ERROR: Could not find a valid gem 'libpq-dev' (>= 0) in any repository durrantm@castleLinux2011:~/Dropbox_not_syncd/webs/3/linker$ – Bobble

If you then are required to have a javascript library installed... gem install 'execjs' and gem install 'therubyracer' – Ulphia

@TravisR: Thanks for the update, I just turned this into a community wiki to make it easier for everyone to keep it up to date. – Wiggins

I am using Ubuntu 12.10, I am not able to install pg gem after installing libpq-dev – Unsegregated

@vedarthk: What does "not able" mean? Perhaps a new question with the install logs would get you the help you need. – Wiggins

@muistooshort Yes I have posted the question : https://mcmap.net/q/54429/-not-able-to-install-pg-gem-on-ubuntu-12-10/1277376 – Unsegregated

Works with Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit – Wicked

In Mac OS X, get homebrew from brew.sh , then brew install postgres to install PostgresQL and its header files. – Excursus

Works like a charm in centOS 6.5 – Barkeeper

Please revise your answer to include apt-get install postgres-server-dev-{pg.version} Your answer no longer works with postgresql 9.4 on Ubuntu 14.04 See: https://mcmap.net/q/54430/-rails-4-2-0-can-39-t-install-pg-gem-on-ubuntu-14-04 – Perfectionism

@RyanRauh: Can you submit an edit? I'm not using Ubuntu right now so I'm not really qualified to say much here. – Wiggins

I just had a probelm with this because I was confusing g and q. to be clear, the package wanted is libpq-dev with a Q not a G – Schoolbag

I tried to do that on Ubuntu 14.04 but it gave me this: " libpq-dev : Depends: libpq5 (= 9.3.4-1) but 9.3.10-0ubuntu0.14.04 is to be installed. – Disgrace

But then when I try to install libpq5, it says "libpq5 is already the newest version. Same for PostgreSQL." – Disgrace

PostgreSQL version is: psql --version: psql (PostgreSQL) 9.3.10. PostgreSQL 9.3.10 on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1) 4.8.2, 64-bit. – Disgrace

The following packages have unmet dependencies: postgresql-server-dev-9.3 : Depends: libpq-dev (>= 9.3~) but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. – Disgrace

@MichaelLafayette I don't have Ubuntu set up anywhere right now so I don't know what the problem could be. – Wiggins

While I executed the command : sudo apt-get install libpq-dev, I get a response - "Unable to locate package". So I execute sudo apt-get update, then executed "sudo apt-get install libpq-dev". Finally it successfully installed. – Blench

Why do gem designers rely on implicit, undocumented, globally installed dependencies, and make no attempt to check for their existence before installing the gem? – Stria

@AndyRay But they are checking for dependencies, that's what "checking for pg_config" and "checking for libpq-fe.h" are about. There's no way to check if the PostgreSQL development stuff is installed without, well, installing some scripts that look for the standard PostgreSQL dev tools (such as pg_config or the header file). Same thing happens when you need anything that isn't packaged inside a gem. – Wiggins

Ubuntu/Debian systems solution valid for Raspbian v9.9 on Raspberry Pi devices. – Ponce

I tried the same steps but still getting error in Redhat: Building native extensions. This could take a while... ERROR: Error installing pg: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. current directory: /opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/pg-1.1.4/ext /opt/chef/embedded/bin/ruby -r ./siteconf20190924-18624-nckmb.rb extconf.rb checking for pg_config... yes Using config values from /bin/pg_config checking for libpq-fe.h... *** extconf.rb failed *** – Quadratics

This worked for me, I already had installed Postgres, and I just needed to execute sudo apt-get install libpq-dev then bundle install and the error disappeared. Thanks – Ottie

Answer 2

On macOS (previously Mac OS X and OS X), use Homebrew to install the proper headers:

brew install postgresql

and then running

gem install pg

should work.

Alternatively, instead of installing the whole postgresql, you can brew install libpq and export the correct PATH and PKG_CONFIG_PATH as explained in the 'Caveats' section

Decumbent

Does this cause any problems if you're also using Postgres.app? – Besse

@Besse I use Postgres.app to run a db instance so having the pg gem just allows you to hook your Rails app up to your local Postgres.app instance – Decumbent

For me after run brew install postgressql i run ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install pg and works fine. – Chiliad

Alternatively, just running brew install libpqxx on mac OSX suffices – Simp

@RicardoSaporta libpqxx installs postgresql as dependency, so it is essentially the same as brew install postgresql – Reposit

Instead of installing the whole postgresql, you can brew install libpq and export the correct PATH and PKG_CONFIG_PATH as explained in the 'Caveats' section. – Forgetful

This also sorted it for me on Ubuntu 20.04 using Linuxbrew. sudo apt-get install libpq-dev kept failing because of some other dependency – Absorber

As someone who's just been hired to work with Ruby/Rails for the first time... Are there many more issues like this? Where a build requires a database installation to run? Do Ruby builds keep breaking for random reasons like this? – Correlation

@Besse I can confirm this does not cause problems with Postgres.app. I've installed Postgres.app and done 'brew install postgres' on two Macs now, in order to get around the problem of pg not installing due to missing headers. Both times worked great, and allow successful bundle install or gem install pg. No need for specifying --with-pg-config, that was a red herring for me. – Brazilin

Answer 3

I had also tried doing gem install libpq-dev, but I received this error:

Can't find the 'libpq-fe.h header
*** extconf.rb failed ***

However I found that installing with sudo apt-get (which I try to avoid using with Ruby on Rails) worked, i.e.

sudo apt-get install libpq-dev
# or
apt-get install postgres-server-dev-{pg.version}
# for postgresql 9.4 on Ubuntu 14.04

then I was able to do

gem install pg

without issues.

Bobble

Right, the Ruby pg gem wraps the usual PostgreSQL C libraries that come with the Ubuntu/Debian/... libpq-dev package. – Wiggins

Answer 4

I could solve this in another way. I didn't find the library on my system. Thus I installed it using an app from PostgreSQL main website. In my case (OS X) I found the file under /Library/PostgreSQL/9.1/include/ once the installation was over. You may also have the file somewhere else depending on your system if you already have PostgreSQL installed.

Thanks to this link on how to add an additional path for gem installation, I could point the gem to the lib with this command:

export CONFIGURE_ARGS="with-pg-include=/Library/PostgreSQL/9.1/include/"
gem install pg

After that, it works, because it now knows where to find the missing library. Just replace the path with the right location for your libpq-fe.h

Rhinestone

David's solution worked for me. I tracked libpq-fe.h to '/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.3/include' and used the export command with said path, followed by the 'gem install pg' and the gem installed successfully. – Nobe

Thanks for this, worked for me, using: export CONFIGURE_ARGS="with-pg-include=/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql/9.3.1/include/" – Anecdotist

Using Postgresql 9.3 on CentOS 6 I solved this by symlinking the pg_* scripts into the $PATH like so: ln -s /usr/pgsql-9.3/bin/p* /usr/local/bin. I installed postgres 9.3 like so: yum install http://yum.postgresql.org/9.3/redhat/rhel-6-x86_64/pgdg-redhat93-9.3-1.noarch.rpm && yum install postgresql93 postgresql93-contrib postgresql93-server postgresql93-devel – Inspect

you can also write as gem install pg -- with-pg-include=/Library/PostgreSQL/9.1/include/ – Classified

Better yet, use export CONFIGURE_ARGS="with-pg-config=/path/to/postgres/bin/pg_config". The pg_config executable will be called to get all the required compiler and linker options — you can run it yourself to see them. – Fanatical

David's version didn't work for installing an old version of the gem (0.21), but @skozin's instruction did. Thank you! – Koweit

this worked perfectly for me on ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Thank you! – Iceman

Answer 5

Can't find the libpq-fe.h header

i had success on CentOS 7.0.1406 running the following commands:

~ % psql --version # => psql (PostgreSQL) 9.4.1
yum install libpqxx-devel
gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=/usr/pgsql-9.4/bin/pg_config

Alternatively, you can configure bundler to always install pg with these options (helpful for running bundler in deploy environments),

• bundle config build.pg --with-pg-config=/usr/pgsql-9.4/bin/pg_config

Classified

very helpful, thanks. Just to add a note regarding bundle config... you must run this command while logged-in as the user who will be running the subsequent bundle command. The bundler config is stored in ~/.bundle/config, so it will not be found if you run bundle config while logged-in as root, but bundler is being run by (e.g. with capistrano) the 'deploy' user. – Ignatzia

bundle config build.pg --with-pg-config=/usr/pgsql-9.4/bin/pg_config solve i for me on Centos 7 – Devoice

bundle config build.pg --with-pg-config=/usr/pgsql-10/bin/pg_config if you are using postgresql10 – Fugacity

For postgres 12 and above I had to do yum install libpq5-devel – Milliken

Answer 6

For CentOS 6.4,

yum install postgresql-devel
gem install pg

worked well!

Callus

Using macports, sudo port install postgresql-devel. – Polydeuces

Answer 7

Just for the record:

Ruby on Rails 4 application in OS X with PostgresApp (in this case 0.17.1 version needed - kind of an old project):

gem install pg -v '0.17.1' -- --with-pg-config=/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.3/bin/pg_config

Demerol

Works great if you're using the wonderful Postgres.app. For Postgres 10, I used the path /Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/10/bin/pg_config – Angieangil

Answer 8

It is only issue of missing libpq-fe.h

On ubuntu we just need to run: sudo apt-get install libpq-dev

Above command will install a NEW package libpq-dev and after that you can again execute bundle install to resume your bundle installation.

Crowboot

worked like a charm! sudo apt-get install libpq-dev && cd project-directory && bundle install . – Badger

Answer 9

On Mac OS X run like this:

gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=***/path/to/pg_config***

***/path/to/pg_config*** is path to pg_config

Ragi

Upvoted. I installed Postgresql via EnterpriseDB's grapihcal installer. Then I need to find out the pg-config path by sudo find / -name "pg_config", then do gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=/Library/PostgreSQL/9.4/bin/pg_config using the path I have just found out. – Wariness

Answer 10

In my case it was package postgresql-server-dev-8.4 (I am on Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), 64 bits).

Profiterole

Answer 11

For MacOS without installing PostgreSQL server:

brew install libpq
gem install pg -- --with-pg-config="/usr/local/Cellar/libpq/9.6.6/bin/pg_config"

Stpeter

Answer 12

My solution for Fedora 30:

sudo dnf install /usr/include/libpq-fe.h

Com

I would love to buy you a beer sometime. This is the ONLY thing that worked in Centos 7/8 after hours struggling with it – Lookthrough

worked for me on fedora 35 . thanks aaron bro. wonder how you figured it out. – Galagalactagogue

Worked for me on Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 8.0. Thanks – Consider

Answer 13

The right answer for Mac users with Postgres.app is to build against the libpq provided with that package. For example, with the 9.4 release (current as of this writing), all you need is:

export CONFIGURE_ARGS="with-pg-include=/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.4/include"
gem install pg

This will keep your pg gem in sync with exactly the version of PostgreSQL you have installed. Installing something from Homebrew is a waste in this case.

Words

Answer 14

I had the same issue on Amazon Linux. I could find the header libpq-fe.h, but somehow it didn't work.

It came from the different versions of the packages that were installed through the different users on the machine. PostgreSQL 9.2 and PostgreSQL 9.3 were installed. So, make sure of your PostgreSQL version before including the libraries.

For me, the magic command line was:

sudo yum install postgresql93 postgresql93-server postgresql93-libs postgresql93-contrib postgresql93-devel

Source: An almost idiot's guide to install PostgreSQL 9.3, PostGIS 2.1 and pgRouting with Yum

Riesling

After installing libraries... do a clean up: "make distclean", "make clean", "./configure" and start compiling! – Schwab

Answer 15

A more general answer for any Debian-based distribution (which includes Ubuntu) is the following. First, install the apt-file package running as root:

apt-get install apt-file

This allows you to search for packages containing a file. Then, update its database using

apt-file update

(this can be run as normal user). Then, look for the missing header using:

apt-file search libpq-fe.h

On my machine, this gives:

libpq-dev: /usr/include/postgresql/libpq-fe.h
postgres-xc-server-dev: /usr/include/postgres-xc/server/gtm/libpq-fe.h

There you go !

Stake

"libpq-dev: /usr/include/postgresql/libpq-fe.h" is present whereas "postgres-xc-server-dev: /usr/include/postgres-xc/server/gtm/libpq-fe.h" is not present ? what am I missing ? – Ivory

File contents may have changed. This looks like there was a private copy of libpq-fe.h in the postgres-... package. In any case, the libXXX-dev is the one you're looking for if you want to compile things. – Stake

So once found, what is the next step? – Hbomb

apt-get install the_package_you_found – Stake

Answer 16

On Ubuntu, install the "libpq-dev" to get rid of this issue.

sudo apt-get install libpq-dev

Pathic

If it is not enough, add sudo apt-get install postgresql before libpq-dev – Daytoday

Answer 17

On debian bullseye, none of the existing answers solved the issue for me.

In case it helps someone with the same configuration as mine:

1. Use PostgreSQL's apt repository: https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Apt
2. sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade (upgrade PostgreSQL from v13 to v14)
3. sudo apt-get install libpq-dev
4. gem install pg or bundle install

Vanesavanessa

Answer 18

On Fedora 32, I managed to solve this same issue by installing libpq5-devel specifically.

If you install postgresql from the official repository, you will have several versions that won't fix the problem, so it's really a matter of trying out which one it needs.

Hypanthium

Doesn't let me edit your answer, you missed a letter, it should be libpq5-devel. It helped though, thanks. – Signorina

I swear I had noticed that and fixed it but I guess I just thought about it. Thanks for pointing it out. – Hypanthium

Answer 19

Solved on MacOS M1:

brew install libpq

Then I put in my PATH

echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/libpq/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

And:

gem install pg

Riordan

after echo, you need also to source ~/.zshrc – Caspar

works great on my new laptop running MacOS Ventura 13.4. yes, close the window and restart the shell in a new window. – Undersheriff

Answer 20

I had this issue with Postgresql 9.6. I was able to fix it by doing:

brew upgrade [email protected]
brew link [email protected] --force
gem install pg

Hanghangar

Answer 21

I had the same problem on Mac OS, but I installed the PostgreSQL gem easily by using the following in a terminal:

ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install pg

(I installed PostgreSQL first with brew install postgresql.)

Kreitman

Answer 22

I found this answer, and it was the only one that worked for me (Mac OS) - after researching for about two days:

$ sudo su

$ env ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install pg

Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Successfully installed pg-0.11.0
1 gem installed
Installing ri documentation for pg-0.11.0...
Installing RDoc documentation for pg-0.11.0...

See Stack Overflow question Can't find the PostgreSQL client library (libpq).

Ami

Thank you, this was only one that worked for me! – Perceptible

Answer 23

I recently upgraded to Mac OS X v10.10 (Yosemite) and was having difficulty building the pg gem.

The error reported was the typical:

Using config values from /usr/local/bin/pg_config
checking for libpq-fe.h... *** extconf.rb failed ***

My solution was to gem uninstall pg and then bundle update pg to replace the gem with the latest. I did run brew update; brew upgrade after the Yosemite install to get the latest versions of packages I had installed previously.

Dumbhead

Answer 24

I am running Postgres.app on a Mac and I had to

export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.4/bin

first. Then

bundle install

worked for me.

Osmometer

Answer 25

On a Mac, I solved it using this code:

gem install pg -v '0.18.4' -- --with-pg-config=/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/9.4/bin/pg_config

Newsdealer

Answer 26

I solved it by creating symlink on MacOS Ventura

if postgresql already installed;

brew link postgresql@12 --force

This command will give directory path as below

If you need to have this software first in your PATH instead consider running:
  echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/postgresql@12/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

you need to add zsh or bash_profile to your computer, whichever you are using

Coltish

Answer 27

I encountered the same error with postgres installed through asdf. The pg-config solutions didn't work for me. Instead I had to locate the postgres include folder which contains the file and run the command with the --with-pg-include flag

gem install pg -- --with-pg-include=/<path>/.asdf/installs/postgres/<version>/include

Menstrual

Note: /<path>/.asdf/installs/postgres/<version> is returned by asdf where postgres – Nogas

Answer 28

I was able to get it working on MacOS Ventura with Apple Silicon using

brew install libpq
brew install postgresql

gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/postgresql@14/14.7/bin/pg_config

Check and replace /postgresql@14/14.7/ with your version.

Vitebsk

Answer 29

On CentOS,I installed libpq-dev package using below command

yum install postgresql-devel

Executing gem install pg returned the same error as "No pg_config... trying anyway. If building fails, please try again with --with-pg-config=/path/to/pg_config".

Installing the gem as below solved my problem

gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=/usr/pgsql-x.x/bin/pg_config

Hypno

Answer 30

The location of libpq-fe.h depends on where your PostgreSQL install is (which depends on how you installed it). Use locate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locate_%28Unix%29) to find the libpq-fe.h file on your machine. If it exists, it will be in the include directory of your PostgreSQL install.

$ locate libpq-fe.h
/Library/PostgreSQL/9.1/include/libpq-fe.h

The bin directory, which contains pg_config, will be in the same directory as the include directory. As the error suggests, use the --with-pg-config option to install the gem:

$ gem install pg --with-pg-config="/Library/PostgreSQL/9.1/bin/pg_config"

Note that you may need to run updatedb if you have never used locate or if you haven't updated since installing PostgreSQL.

Rugg

Without a -- before the --with-pg-config=... I get an error: ERROR: While executing gem ... (OptionParser::InvalidOption) invalid option: --with-pg-config=/usr/bin/pg_config) – Seaward

Answer 31

On Ubuntu 20.04, I already had libpq5:amd64 version 13.2-1.pgdg20.04+1. Now when I tried to install libpq-dev from apt repository, I was receiving

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libpq-dev : Depends: libpq5 (= 12.6-0ubuntu0.20.04.1) but 13.2-1.pgdg20.04+1 is to be installed

I grabbed the deb from http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/p/postgresql-13/libpq-dev_13.2-1_amd64.deb and did the following:

mkdir -p /tmp/libpq-dev
dpkg-deb -R libpq-dev_13.2-1_amd64.deb /tmp/libpq-dev
sed -i 's|= 13.2-1|= 13.2-1.pgdg20.04+1|' /tmp/libpq-dev/DEBIAN/control
dpkg-deb -b /tmp/libpq-dev /tmp/libpq-dev-new.deb
sudo dpkg -i /tmp/libpq-dev-new.deb

I have been using the gem happily after that. No additional installs or anything.

Wristlet

Answer 32

For alpine, please use below to fix the error

apk add --no-cache postgresql-dev

Luiseluiza

Answer 33

On FreeBSD (9.1) the necessary package is /usr/ports/database/postgresql-server* which when installed will also install the required header file that makes the gem install of "pg" fail. This answer here helped me find the solution but the difference in package names required a bit of searching.

Hopefully this helps someone avoid a bit of head scratching when searching for the "-dev" package on a FreeBSD system!

Kassiekassity

Answer 34

On Debian 7.0, 64-bit (Wheezy), just run:

sudo apt-get install libpq-dev

After you successfully installed libpq-dev, run:

bundle install

Ashanti

Answer 35

Under CentOS 6.5 (Squeeze) I created a file:

$ sudo touch /etc/profile.d/psql.sh

with content:

pathmunge /usr/pgsql-9.3/bin

Note here, you should set your PostgreSQL path with the pg_config file. You can find this with the command:

$ sudo find / -iname pg_config

Save the file:

$ sudo chmod +x /etc/profile.d/ruby.sh

and try to execute your command again.

Note: Anytime you change the Bash configuration - changing the profile.d configuration - you should reload Bash.

Applicator

How did you install postgres? I symlinked the pg_* scripts into the path like so: ln -s /usr/pgsql-9.3/bin/p* /usr/local/bin. After that I didn’t need any additional scripts or environment variables. – Inspect

Answer 36

I finally solved this problem, but not using the previously described methods.

Using brew install postgresql, I find out that it had already been installed, but not linked.

1. Find out where PostgreSQL is installed, and delete it,

2. Then brew install postgresql again,

3. brew link postgresql

4. gem install pg

Museology

"brew link --force postgresql" worked for me but befor that i have to run 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/[email protected]/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile – Underthecounter

Answer 37

I solved this installing the 'postgresql-common' package. This package provides the pg_config binary which is most likely what you were missing.

Scheelite

Answer 38

I was having a similar problem, and this fixed it for me:

gem install do_postgres -- --with-pgsql-server-dir=/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/MacOS --with-pgsql-server-include=/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/MacOS/include/server

Source:

https://gist.github.com/oisin/6562181

Trimetrogon

Answer 39

Only uninstalling (sudo apt-get purge) libpq-dev and re-installing it worked for me.

Regulus

Answer 40

On OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), I brew-installed postgresql, and I then had to rvm reinstall my Ruby. I am happy now :)

Athenaathenaeum

Answer 41

For AltLinux the package postgresqlx.x-devel (in my case postgresql9.5-devel) must be installed:

apt-get install postgresql9.5-devel

Soredium

You can also install specific versions with yum - yum install postgresqlxx-devel e.g yum install postgresql94-devel – Lively

Answer 42

I just had this on OSX running brew and [email protected].

My fix was this:

CONFIGURE_ARGS="with-pg-include=/usr/local/opt/[email protected]/include/" bundle install

Bunting

Answer 43

For Mac OS X just install https://postgresapp.com/ and follow steps for command line section and ruby

sudo mkdir -p /etc/paths.d &&
echo /Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/latest/bin | sudo tee /etc/paths.d/postgresapp

Then

sudo ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install pg

Inwards

I found the same answer here for the top code section above: postgresapp.com/documentation/cli-tools.html under "Configure your $PATH" then all I had to do was open a new terminal and bundle install. I'm on an M1 Mac. – Wolfsbane

Answer 44

On OS X and MacPorts the -devel package for PostgreSQL is not required any more. Installing the pg gem works as follows:

~ > sudo port install postgresql-devel
...
Error: postgresql-devel has been replaced by postgresql91; please install that port instead
~ > gem install pg -v '0.17.1' -- --with-pg-config=/opt/local/lib/postgresql95/bin/pg_config

See also this post.

Pumice

port select --set postgresql postgresql96 or any other version you installed to active symlinks including pg_config – Recollection

Answer 45

On Arch Linux you will need to install postgresql-libs:

sudo pacman -Syu postgresql-libs

Radtke

Answer 46

Step 1) Make sure postgress is installed in your system ( If it's already installed and you can run postgress server on your machine move to step (2)

apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib (sol - fatal error: libpq-fe.h: No such file or directory)
sudo apt-get install ruby-dev (required to install postgress below)
sudo gem install pg
sudo service postgresql restart

Step 2) Some of the c++ files are trying to access libpq-fe.h directly and cant find. So we need to manually search every such file and replace libpq-fe.h with postgresql/libpq-fe.h

Command for searching all occurrences of libpq-fe.h in all dir and subdir is grep -rnw ./ -e 'libpq-fe.h'

3) Go to All the file listed by command run in step 2 and manually change libpq-fe.h with postgresql/libpq-fe.h.

Watchdog

Answer 47

I have tried all solutions but only works below command

pip install psycopg2-binary

Uralic

Answer 48

Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS, this seemed to work for me:

sudo apt-get install ruby ruby-dev libpqxx-dev libpq-fe-dev libpq-dev 
sudo gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=/usr/include/postgresql/pg_config --with-pg-include=/usr/include/postgresql/

Hbomb

And ls /usr/include/postgresql/libpq-fe.h /usr/include/postgresql/pg_config can be used to check the files are there to start with. – Hbomb

Answer 49

I just had this problem too. I tried many of the answers above and none worked. What finally worked was to check brew was working fine (brew doctor) and to restart the terminal.

Then the error as gone.

Stoughton

Answer 50

I fixed the same error by doing a Ruby reinstall via rvm:

rvm reinstall 1.9.3

Cannady

it helped to recover back to initial ruby distribution from rvm but not fixing the problem. – Burnham