Can't install Nokogiri gem, "libxml/parser.h" not found, but its there, why?

Question

I tried to install Nokogiri but I always get an compiling error:

checking for libxml/parser.h... *** extconf.rb failed ***

but, I've installed it and all other dependencies.

I try to give the installer hints like this:

%> gem install nokogiri -- --with-xml2-lib=/usr/lib/ --with-xml2-include=/usr/include/libxml2/

...

checking for libxml/parser.h... *** extconf.rb failed ***

...

but it still doesn't install:

%> find /usr/include/ -name "parser.h"    
/usr/include/libxml2/libxml/parser.h
...

I'm on Ubuntu 11.10.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Output of:

"dpkg-query -l | grep xml" and "dpkg-query -l | grep xslt"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The failure seem to be on the side of GCC:

%> cat hello.c
#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
   printf("Hello World \n");
}

%> gcc hello.c
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.6.1/../../../x86_64-linux-gnu/crt1.o: In function `_start':
(.text+0x12): undefined reference to `__libc_csu_fini'
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.6.1/../../../x86_64-linux-gnu/crt1.o: In function `_start':
(.text+0x19): undefined reference to `__libc_csu_init'
collect2: ld gab 1 als Ende-Status zurück

Hitch

It would be helpful to know what operating system this is. – Stope

Trying a different approach - you should have an mkmf.log file from the directory where the install failed. Can you show us the contents of that file? Also - do you have the build tools and compilers installed on your system? extconf.rb might be attempting to do test building. Try to run something like gcc or make from the command line, see if they respond. – Cold

I think you truly don't have them installed. Did you install them using sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev libxslt-dev? – Stope

Hmm, I ran into similar issue on Mac OSX today for nokogiri 1.5.2 – Manriquez

Looks like the libraries are not correct for the architecture. Could you run: 1. which gcc, 2.dpkg-query -S "crt1.o"|grep "/crt1.o". Are you on x64? – Zymogenesis

This question should be re-opened. I had this issue using ubuntu 13.04 on an Amazon ec2 instance. I think a large number of people could be helped by this question as I was. – Scuttlebutt

Answer 1

This will work.

sudo apt-get install libxslt-dev libxml2-dev
gem install nokogiri

Juratory

might have to uninstall nokogirl and/or libxml-ruby first ala: gem uninstall nokogiri; gem uninstall libxml-ruby; then reinstall – Dagny

I keep getting this error and having to use this solution everytime I try to run a Rails 3 app. – Dendrology

Answer 2

I just faced the same issue on (cat /etc/centos-release:) CentOS release 6.6 (Final).

sudo yum install -y rubygem-nokogiri

…fixed that problem.

(see: http://www.nokogiri.org/tutorials/installing_nokogiri.html#red_hat___centos)

Carmina

I got away with yum install libxml2-devel libxslt-devel (on CentOS 6.7). I don't have the system Ruby installed, so this saves me having to install a bunch of Ruby-related dependencies. – Necessary