Real Trouble Trying To Install Gem with Native Ext

Hi all,

So I've been pushing through to get pauldix-feedzirra working on my account but it requires libxslt, which isn't installed in a way that I can compile a gem with.

So I downloaded libxslt and compiled/installed it successfully in my account. It is nokogiri as a dependency to pauldix-feedzirra that complains it can't find it first, so I simply (after a lot of digging) go into my .gem/gems/nokogiri-1.2.3/ext/nokogiri directory and run with my locally compiled path to libxslt:

"ruby extconf.rb --with-xslt-dir=/home/username/run --prefix=/home/username/.gem/gems and IT COMPILES!

Sadly, this doesn't fix it though. When I try to run gem install pauldix-feedzirra again, it doesn't recognize that nokogiri is installed and writes over the old directory, giving me the same error i was getting when it wasn't compiled. :(

I don't know if:

A.) the nokogiri gem isn't getting installed into the right place?
or
B.) there's some way to inform the gem install of where those dependencies are (libxslt custom location, etc.) though I haven't found any options for the gem install command that would do that.

ANY HELP!?!? I really need to get this native code usin' gem installed.

Thanks all!

hi there.

just figured this out.
to install nokogiri, you need to first install the xslt package (make them yourself in your local directory) and then after that, pass in the right parameters that point the gem installer to the right xslt package.

1. get the package for that library -> download the xslt library that you need http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT/downloads.html

2. in dreamhost do: wget the-ftp-url-from-above

3. decide where to put it and do a ./configure --prefix=/path-where-you-want-to-put-it/

4. make

5. make install

6. gem install nokogiri -- --with-xslt-include=/path-where-you-want-to-put-it/include/ --with-xslt-lib=/path-where-you-want-to-put-it/lib/

mrfiocco: thanks for the details! this looks like the approach i was taking but i don't remember the details. i'll post my results here. this seems like a rarely documented (but important) task on dreamhost!

thanks again.

Hi mrfiocco,

This worked great. (I think it was the '--' after the install command i was missing.) I was trying to install a gem with multiple other dependencies that required native extensions but I was able to use this method for each of them, downloading them one by one into my home directory, compiling/installing them and then eventually, when all dependencies of the master gem were satisfied, I was able to run the gem install for that successfully.

Now I just need to navigate all the crap about Passenger not recognizing the local GEM environment and I'll be all set. :)

Thanks again.

I'll try this too, hope it works fine for me too.

Remove Acne Fast

Thanks, Mr Fiocco.

I fumbled myself along to this same point using bits of other threads about getting libxslt on Dreamhost.

I've got it in the right places, namely
/home/myusername/local/lib and /home/myusername/local/include,
but running the same command as you provided fails:

[gravano]$ gem install nokogiri -- --with-xslt-include=/home/myusername/local/include/ --with-xslt-lib=/home/myusername/local/lib/
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR: Error installing nokogiri:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb --with-xslt-include=/home/myusername/local/include/ --with-xslt-lib=/home/myusername/local/lib/
checking for iconv.h in /home/myusername/local/include/,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2... yes
checking for libxml/parser.h in /home/myusername/local/include/,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2... yes
checking for libxslt/xslt.h in /home/myusername/local/include/,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2... yes
checking for libexslt/exslt.h in /home/myusername/local/include/,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2... yes
checking for xmlParseDoc() in -lxml2... yes
checking for xsltParseStylesheetDoc() in -lxslt... no
libxslt is missing. try 'port install libxslt' or 'yum install libxslt-devel'

But it is not missing. It says it found the header, right? libxslt/xslt.h

I tried reconfiguring and making libxslt, but I'm not sure what is the missing link here.

mind2find,

I tried what you did with "ruby extconf.rb" and also was able to compile nokogiri, but had the same problem with feedzirra not finding it.