Why does installing Nokogiri on Mac OS fail with libiconv is missing? - ruby

Question

I've been trying to install Nokogiri on Mac OS 10.9.3 and whatever I try, the install fails in the end with the following error message:
$ sudo gem install nokogiri -- --with-xml2-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/include/libxml2 --with-xml2-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/lib --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.28 --with-iconv-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/include --with-iconv-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/lib
Building native extensions with: '--with-xml2-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/include/libxml2 --with-xml2-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/lib --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.28 --with-iconv-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/include --with-iconv-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/lib'
This could take a while...
Building nokogiri using packaged libraries.
ERROR: Error installing nokogiri:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb --with-xml2-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/include/libxml2 --with-xml2-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.1/lib --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.28 --with-iconv-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/include --with-iconv-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14/lib
Building nokogiri using packaged libraries.
checking for iconv.h... yes
checking for iconv_open() in iconv.h... no
checking for iconv_open() in -liconv... no
checking for libiconv_open() in iconv.h... no
checking for libiconv_open() in -liconv... no
-----
libiconv is missing. please visit http://nokogiri.org/tutorials/installing_nokogiri.html for help with installing dependencies.
-----
*** 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=/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/bin/ruby
--help
--clean
--use-system-libraries
--enable-static
--disable-static
--with-zlib-dir
--without-zlib-dir
--with-zlib-include
--without-zlib-include=${zlib-dir}/include
--with-zlib-lib
--without-zlib-lib=${zlib-dir}/lib
--enable-cross-build
--disable-cross-build
Gem files will remain installed in /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/nokogiri-1.6.2.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/nokogiri-1.6.2.1/ext/nokogiri/gem_make.out
After following a lot of help found around the web including building and installing libxml2 and libxslt using brew and building libiconv from the sources (as described in "Installing Nokogiri"), the error remains the same.
When trying to run the installation for Nokogiri, libxml2 and libxslt seem to be found fine, but not libiconv.
Anyone with a better knowledge of these things know how to get Nokogiri installed?

Answer 1

I had the same issue. Unfortunately the "Installing Nokogiri" doesn't cover Iconv issues. Here's how I resolved the issue.
First install homebrew, it'll make your life easier. If you already have it installed, be sure to grab the latest formulae by updating like so:
brew update
Note: In OSX 10.9+ you may need to install xCode command tools to allow you to install libiconv.
xcode-select --install
then install a newer version of libiconv
brew install libiconv
then install your gem
gem install nokogiri -- --with-iconv-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14

Answer 2

Try using the system libraries. OSX comes with libiconv in newer versions, but the defaults install script seems to have a problem
gem install nokogiri -- --use-system-libraries
Edit: If using bundler, as mentioned by Geoff you can do:
bundle config build.nokogiri --use-system-libraries

Answer 3

#Cory's solution contains the correct answer, but the solution on Mavericks is actually much simpler than the top solution so I'm reposting with only the necessary steps.
On Mavericks (OSX 10.9+):
Install Xcode Command Line Tools:
xcode-select --install
then install your gem:
gem install nokogiri

Answer 4

I was finally able to solve this problem. None of the above solutions completely fixed it for me.
I was getting this error when trying to gem install nokogiri on OSX Lion 10.7.2. First of all, this error masks the real problem by saying libiconv is missing, because you will get the same error even if nokogiri can't find libxslt or libxml2, which in my case, it couldn't.
So I followed the instructions on http://nokogiri.org/tutorials/installing_nokogiri.html under the Homebrew section (slightly modified to account for a more current version of libxml2):
brew install libxml2
brew link libxml2
# install libxslt from source
wget ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxml2/libxslt-1.1.26.tar.gz
tar -zxvf libxslt-1.1.26.tar.gz
cd libxslt-1.1.26
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26 --with-libxml-prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.7.8
make
sudo make install
At this point I followed the directions on the nokogiri site and tried
gem install nokogiri -- --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26
However, this still failed because when building libxslt from source, it installs the /include folder in a funky place. So you need to specify the lib and include folders separately like so:
gem install nokogiri -- --with-xslt-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26/lib --with-xslt-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26/include/libxslt
This still didn't work (same libiconv error), so I tried to specify all three required libraries (libxslt, libxml2 and libiconv):
gem install nokogiri -- --with-xslt-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26/lib --with-xslt-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26/include/libxslt --with-iconv-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14 --with-xml2-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.7.8
Now I got a different error! It was still an error but at least it was different. The make process failed with:
in /opt/local/lib/libz.1.dylib, file was built for unsupported file format which is not the architecture being linked (x86_64) for architecture x86_64
Uhh, what? After a lot of googling, I came across this miracle post: http://www.refresherate.com/2010/01/08/fixing-ld-warning-in-usrlocalliblibz-dylib-file-is-not-of-required-architecture/
Apparently OSX Lion ships with some bad versions of the libz library (libz.dylib, libz.1.dylib, libz.1.2.4.dylib) and and they need to be replaced with the latest versions from the Xcode SDK. The article explains it better than I can so read the above link for specific instructions.
Once these were replaced, I ran
gem install nokogiri -- --with-xslt-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26/lib --with-xslt-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26/include/libxslt --with-iconv-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14 --with-xml2-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.7.8
again and all was well. I hope this helps someone else.

Answer 5

Just adding my voice to the crowd, but mkmf.log said something about not being able to find symbols for x86_64 architecture. I stumbled across this solution:
sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install nokogiri -- --use-system-libraries
May not solve anything for the original asker, but this may help someone.
Side Note: nokogiri has been my highest barrier to using ruby applications. Every time someone depends on a different version I have to figure out how to build it. And my problem is different every time.

Answer 6

gem install nokogiri -v '1.6.6.2' -- --use-system-libraries --with-xml2-include=$(brew --prefix libxml2)/include/libxml2
this worked for me on macos.
It works also with version 1.6.6.4

Answer 7

I'm using..
OS X 10.9.4
Homebrew 0.9.4
Here is my summery from this thread to successfully install nokogiri, fixing missing libiconv.
Install Homebrew http://brew.sh/
Or update to latest using command below
brew update
Install libxml2 libxslt
brew install libxml2 libxslt
Link both libxml2 libxslt
brew link libxml2 libxslt
If you get warning to use --force, just use command below
brew link --force libxml2 libxslt
Install xCode command tools to enable you to install libiconv
xcode-select --install
Install libiconv
wget http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/libiconv/libiconv-1.13.1.tar.gz
tar xvfz libiconv-1.13.1.tar.gz
cd libiconv-1.13.1
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.13.1
make
sudo make install
Final step, install nokogiri!
gem install nokogiri -- --with-xml2-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.8.0/include/libxml2 --with-xml2-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.8.0/lib --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26 --with-iconv-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.13.1/include --with-iconv-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.13.1/lib

Answer 8

I solved this on Yosemite running Ruby 2.1.4 by
ensure you have xCode 6.1 installed, then
xcode-select --install, then
In the AppStore click on updates and install the most recent version of the command-line tools (which apparently xcode-select --install does't do - sigh)
then bundle install worked as normal.
I also did a brew install libiconv too but I am not convinced that step was needed.

Answer 9

I tried many things but nothing worked for me. Then I finally found the iconv documentation and it saved my day!

Answer 10

Looking in the mkmf file, it apear that nokogiri (or gem, I don't know) try to find dependencies in /op/local/. For me it's not the right path to search them for.
Forcing nokogiri to find the libs at the right place (I use homebrew) did the trick for me :
$ gem install nokogiri -- --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26 --with-xml2-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.7.8/
Maybe there is something to fix in nokogiri...
HTH,

Answer 11

libiconv was removed from Homebrew 0.9 Now it's recommended to compile libiconv from source, then reference the install when you install the nokogiri gem. See the Nokogiri install instructions under the Homebrew 0.9 section on the Nokogiri install page

Answer 12

Look in the mkmf.log file in the gem's build directory (e.g. /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/nokogiri-1.4.4/ext/nokogiri/mkmf.log). That has a lot more info. In my case when I hit this it was that Nokogiri specifically adds /opt/local/lib to the library search path and GNU Backgammon had installed an incompatible libiconv there.

Answer 13

Assuming you installed libxml2 and libxslt with MacPorts, then you might still be getting this error due to a mismatch of the order of include paths and link paths used by the call to have_func('iconv_open', 'iconv.h')
Simple (patch) solution: delete libiconv.* in /usr/local/lib

Answer 14

$ gem install nokogiri -- --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26 --with-xml2-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.7.8/
same as above, this is the solution for homebrew and using gem install (apply changes depends on your version)
however, if you use Gemfile and bundle install, you should apply the bundle config before you install, here the code
$ bundle config build.nokogiri --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26 --with-xml2-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.7.8/ --with-iconv-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14
again, apply changes depends on your version
hope this will help you.
credit: https://gist.github.com/1344331

Answer 15

I had similar trouble on Mountain Lion. Turns out I had installed libiconv via rvm package previously and this is no longer necessary for ruby 1.9.3/Mountain Lion/nokogiri.
Following the advice of https://rvm.io/packages/, I deleted my $rvm_path/usr directory and rebuilt ruby 1.9.3. Thereafter installing nokogiri was a simple gem install. No messing with brew/macports/manual source installs!

Answer 16

You could also do this on Mavericks:
gem install nokogiri -- --use-system-libraries=true --with-xml2-include=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.9.sdk/usr/include/libxml2
Just make sure you have xcode installed

Answer 17

I was fighting with Nokogiri for a while today on OS X 10.10 Yosemite
My environment was messed up for some reason.
which bundle and which gem were giving me /usr/bin/bundle and /usr/bin/gem instead of ~/.rbenv/shims/gem
What helped correct it for me was sudo rm -i /usr/bin/gem /usr/bin/bundle
After that I:
1. switched back to my project directory
2. uninstalled the dependent
3. (re)-installed the dependent libs: did a brew install libxml2 libiconv libxslt
4. installed my ruby version fresh (with rbenv)
5. did gem install bundler
6. and bundle install ran without any problems.
Nokogiri was fine after that.
For reference:
╰─% cat .bundle/config
---
BUNDLE_PATH: vendor/bundle
BUNDLE_DISABLE_SHARED_GEMS: '1'
BUNDLE_JOBS: 4
╰─% which ruby bundle gem
~/.rbenv/shims/ruby
~/.rbenv/shims/bundle
~/.rbenv/shims/gem

Answer 18

This one worked for me
sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install nokogiri:1.6.6.2 -- --use-system-libraries --with-xml=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.3/ --with-iconv-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.14

Answer 19

You need to upgrade your homebrew to 0.9
then follow these steps
brew install libxml2 libxslt
brew link libxml2 libxslt
wget http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/libiconv/libiconv-1.13.1.tar.gz
tar xvfz libiconv-1.13.1.tar.gz
cd libiconv-1.13.1
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.13.1
make
sudo make install
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.2
gem install nokogiri -- --with-xml2-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.0/include/libxml2 --with-xml2-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.0/lib --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.28 --with-iconv-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.13.1/include --with-iconv-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.13.1/lib
You should double check the folder library version.

Answer 20

HOMEBREW USERS
Correct solution to fix this problem if you are using homebrew:
xcode-select --install
Choose "Get Xcode" from the dialog box.
brew unlink libiconv
gem install nokogiri
The xcode-select step fixes your Xcode installation and Xcode Command Line Utils installation. I found that I didn't have /usr/include/iconv.h due to some kind of problem with O/S upgrades or restores from backups. If you don't have that header file and /usr/lib/libconv.dylib after running xcode-select then you most likely need to drag Xcode from the Application folder to the trash and reinstall and then manually download the Command Line Tools for Xcode from https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action and install that.
Then you need to unlink the libiconv from homebrew. You don't need this. And clang will actually pick up /usr/local/include/iconv.h over /usr/include/iconv.h and will #define iconv_open to libiconv_open but then link against /usr/lib/libiconv.dylib which does not have libiconv_open which is what causes the mkmf failures to find libiconv. What you need to do is remove the linking in of iconv.h so that nokogiri will not find it.
Then just build nokogiri normally.
For new users, all you should need to do is install xcode with xcode-select and install nokogiri, but if you've found this question then presumably you've got a botched installation and not a fresh install of Mavericks.
Some of the other answers here are definitely incorrect. Most of them attempt to use libiconv out of homebrew which is entirely unnecessary. The answers that brew link libiconv are actually causing the problem where clang becomes confused and tries to read a homebrew header file and link against the system libraries. The answers which suggest --use-system-libraries are poor because nokogiri needs to be linked against its bundled libxml2 and libxslt libraries because other versions of those libraries are incompatible with it. The answers which want you to compile from sources are just hopelessly overly complicated.
TL;DR:
Upgrade and/or repair your Xcode installation
Unlink your homebrew libiconv since trying to use that only causes problems
Build nokogiri normally
RVM USERS
Old RVM installations may have a libiconv hiding in your rvm directories somewhere which are conflicting with your system libraries. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/11809261/506908 for more information.
MacPorts USERS
If you have /opt/local/lib/libiconv.dylib then nokogiri adds that path to the list of directories that it searches for and it will find the MacPorts installation similar to how it picks up the homebrew libiconv and conflicts with the system libraries. You can try:
sudo port uninstall libiconv
If that fails due to dependencies then you can try linking against the MacPorts version directly (untested):
gem install nokogiri -- --with-iconv-dir=/opt/local

Answer 21

I ran into this, this morning... after an upgrade to Mavericks. We did many things. However if anyone is having this issue here are some things to try.
I ran 'xcode-select --install' then got the command line tools installed (surprised this didn't update on the OS ugrade).
I ran 'rvm implode' (I will build it back up later).
We pieced together two error output files:
~/.vagrant.d/gems/gems/nokogiri-1.6.3.1/ext/nokogiri/gem_make.out
~/.vagrant.d/gems/gems/nokogiri-1.6.3.1/ext/nokogiri/tmp/x86_64-apple-darwin12.5.0/ports/libxml2/2.8.0/configure.log
Which seemed to indicate that the c compiler was using a surprising setting.
I ran 'env'
Output contained:
...
CXX=/usr/local/opt/apple-gcc42/bin/g++-4.2
...
CC=/usr/local/opt/apple-gcc42/bin/gcc-4.2
...
These files didn't exist on the file system...
After all of these changes moving to a new terminal windows (so everything was fresh). Installation of vagrant-berkshelf (which in turn installs nokogiri) worked fine.
NOTE: when running 'env' in the fresh window there was no longer a setting for CC or CXX...
Unsure on the key part of this, or if order matters, but tried to recreate the parts that seemed to play a role in getting this to work.

Answer 22

According to the documentation, as of OSX 10.9 and Homebrew 9.5+, you are probably missing the development tools.
Nokogiri installation
Troubleshooting
If you have problems mentioning libiconv missing that looks something like this:
Installing nokogiri (1.6.2.1) Building nokogiri using packaged libraries.
Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p0/bin/ruby extconf.rb
Building nokogiri using packaged libraries.
checking for iconv.h... yes
checking for iconv_open() in iconv.h... no
checking for iconv_open() in -liconv... no
checking for libiconv_open() in iconv.h... no
checking for libiconv_open() in -liconv... no
-----
libiconv is missing. please visit http://nokogiri.org/tutorials/installing_nokogiri.html for help with installing dependencies.
-----
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Then you are probably missing the right developer tools. This is a really easy fix:
brew unlink gcc-4.2 # you might not need this step
gem uninstall nokogiri
xcode-select --install
gem install nokogiri
This is verified working on OSX 10.9 w/ xcode’s clang compiler.

Answer 23

I got this issue when I upgraded my Mac OS to Yosemite. I was able to solve this issue by doing:
xcode-select --install
brew uninstall libiconv
brew install libiconv
gem install nokogiri

Answer 24

I had a similar issue and the accepted answer used to work for me. Now, however I have been seeing a new error message where a gmkdir command is missing as in this question:
gem install nokogiri -v '1.5.11' failed due to make: /usr/local/bin/gmkdir: No such file or directory
What worked for me was first a little cleanup:
brew uninstall libiconv
brew uninstall libxml2
brew uninstall libxslt
And then brew unlink libiconv and whatever else you need to unlink (check with brew doctor). Then, the magic two lines (copied from the linked answer):
brew install coreutils
gem install nokogiri

Answer 25

Simple steps to follow before you start uninstalling and installing anything.
Check if you have CLT (command line tools installed):
brew config
see the CLT version here if its installed no need for reinstallation.
This means the issue is with permission you have reinstall only bundler gem make its not sudo.
Uninstall bundler with
gem uninstall bundler
reinstall gem bundler
gem install bundler
Most important point here is the permission under which bundler gem is installed it should never be sudoed.

Answer 26

First of all make sure you follow the installation guide on nokogiri: http://nokogiri.org/tutorials/installing_nokogiri.html
After having followed the guide I still had this issue. This is how I solved it:
First of all I installed iconv using homebrew:
brew install iconv
Then I uninstalled ruby, luckily this is very easy with rvm:
rvm uninstall 1.9.2
Then I had to reinstall ruby with the following options:
CC=gcc-4.2 rvm install 1.9.2-p290 --with-iconv-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.13.1
Then I create a gemset with the new ruby version:
rvm use 1.9.2#coolproject
Then I can finally install nokogiri like this:
gem install nokogiri -v=1.4.4 -- --with-xml2-include=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.7.8/include/libxml2 --with-xml2-lib=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.7.8/lib --with-xslt-dir=/usr/local/Cellar/libxslt/1.1.26

Answer 27

In my case, (as with scotchi) the build failed because of an incompatible iconv library in /opt/local/lib.
By default, theNokogiri build process looks at /opt/local first.
To force it to use a different install directory, /usr/local for example, do:
gem install nokogiri -- --with-xml2-lib=/usr/local/lib --with-xml2-include=/usr/local/include/libxml2 --with-xslt-lib=/usr/local/lib --with-xslt-include=/usr/local/include

Answer 28

This blog post proposes to install libiconv manually.
Subsequently, nokogiri can be installed with a number of switches telling it where to find libiconv (see the blog post).
As a side note: After installing nokogiri, I managed to install gollum (installation of which also failed because it could not find iconv). Now I am still facing problems though, because when I start up gollum, Python crashes.

Answer 29

$ gem install iconv # works but it is missing an iconv.so file in ruby 2.0.0-p247
$ ls -1 2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/*/*/*.so
2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/ext/iconv/iconv.so*
2.0.0-p0/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/lib/iconv/iconv.so*
$ ls -1 2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/*/*/*.so
2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/ext/iconv/iconv.so*
NOTE THE MISSING /lib/iconv/iconv.so file in 2.0.0-p247 that is present in 2.0.0-p0 gems installation.
$ rbenv version
2.0.0-p247 (set by /home/XXX/tmp/.ruby-version)
$ rbenv which gem
/home/XXX/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p247/bin/gem
$ gem --version
1.8.25
$ rbenv which pry
/home/XXX/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p247/bin/pry
$ pry
[1] pry(main)> require 'iconv'
LoadError: cannot load such file -- iconv/iconv.so
from /home/XXX/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'
Copy the file over
$ pushd ~/.rbenv/versions/
$ cp 2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/ext/iconv/iconv.so 2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/gems/2.0.0/gems/iconv-1.0.3/lib/iconv/
NOW IT WORKS!
$ pry
[1] pry(main)> require 'iconv'
=> true

Answer 30

I had to install gcc first before running ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/libiconv/1.13.1