Can't build gem -- native extension build fails -- can you see why?

Question

I can't figure out what is going wrong here -- any ideas??

I'm running on a Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, and have installed libxml2 and libxslt from these instructions:

http://www.techsww.com/tutorials/libraries/libxml/installation/installing_libxml_on_ubuntu_linux.php

http://www.techsww.com/tutorials/libraries/libxslt/installation/installing_libxslt_on_ubuntu_linux.php

However, I installed the latest versions:

libxslt-1.1.24
libxml2-2.7.3

The install was uneventful

-------------------- I set LD_LIBRARY_PATH ----------------------------------

echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
/usr/local/libxslt/lib:

------------- seems like the function is present -- at least based on the output of strings ------------
/usr/local/libxslt/lib$ strings * | grep ParseStylesheetDoc
xsltParseStylesheetDoc
xsltParseStylesheetDoc
xsltParseStylesheetDoc
xsltParseStylesheetDoc
xsltParseStylesheetDoc
xsltParseStylesheetDoc
xsltParseStylesheetDoc

----------------------- But the compile still fails ----------------------------------------

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

/usr/local/bin/ruby extconf.rb install webrat
checking for iconv.h in /opt/local/include/,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2... yes
checking for libxml/parser.h in /opt/local/include/,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2... yes
checking for libxslt/xslt.h in /opt/local/include/,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2... yes
checking for libexslt/exslt.h in /opt/local/include/,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/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'
*** 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=/usr/local/bin/ruby
--with-iconv-dir
--without-iconv-dir
--with-iconv-include
--without-iconv-include=${iconv-dir}/include
--with-iconv-lib
--without-iconv-lib=${iconv-dir}/lib
--with-xml2-dir
--without-xml2-dir
--with-xml2-include
--without-xml2-include=${xml2-dir}/include
--with-xml2-lib
--without-xml2-lib=${xml2-dir}/lib
--with-xslt-dir
--without-xslt-dir
--with-xslt-include
--without-xslt-include=${xslt-dir}/include
--with-xslt-lib
--without-xslt-lib=${xslt-dir}/lib
--with-xml2lib
--without-xml2lib
--with-xsltlib
--without-xsltlib

Gem files will remain installed in /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/nokogiri-1.3.3 for inspection.
Results logged to /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/nokogiri-1.3.3/ext/nokogiri/gem_make.out

Answer 1

Try removing the libxslt* and install them again. That fixed the issue for me.

Answer 2

You have to install the development kits of these libraries.

Answer 3

kilari is right ... try "yum reinstall libxslt". It works for me too.

Answer 4

In Ubuntu you need to follow these steps: sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev sudo apt-get install libxslt-dev

Answer 5

I get the same error when trying to install to a non-standard location (as I don't have access to directories outside my home directory). It seems as if this answer simply installed to the default location in /usr for success. Or did I misunderstand?

More context about what I'm trying to do at http://groups.google.com/group/nokogiri-talk/browse_thread/thread/c1e909be09e90f5a, if that's helpful.

Answer 6

Jared Evans in this post on his blog, described a solution that worked for me on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. His trick is to NOT use apt-get to install rubygems, but rather to build it from source. This worked great for me. His post is directed at installing rails, so I used these (modified slightly) steps from it to just install nokogiri:

FIRST INSTALL RUBY WITH APT-GET:

 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get install ruby irb ri rdoc ruby1.8-dev libzlib-ruby
  libyaml-ruby libreadline-ruby libncurses-ruby libcurses-ruby libruby
  libruby-extras libfcgi-ruby1.8 build-essential libopenssl-ruby
  libdbm-ruby libdbi-ruby libdbd-sqlite3-ruby sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev
  libsqlite3-ruby libxml-ruby libxml2-dev

IN ADDITION TO JARED'S INSTRUCTIONS I ALSO INSTALLED (I'm not certain that libxslt1.1 is necessary):

 sudo apt-get install libxslt1.1
 sudo apt-get install libxslt1-dev

DOWNLOAD RUBYGEMS SOURCE:

Download the latest RubyGems (currently 1.3.6) from rubyforge (I used the zip package).

BUILD RUBYGEMS:

 cd /TO/DIRECTORY/WHERE/YOU/UNZIPPED/rubygems-1.3.6/
 sudo ruby setup.rb
 sudo ln -s /usr/bin/gem1.8 /usr/bin/gem

INSTALL NOKOGIRI:

 sudo gem update –system
 sudo gem install nokogiri

The response will be:

1 gem installed
Installing ri documentation for nokogiri-1.4.1...

No definition for parse_memory

No definition for parse_file

No definition for parse_with

No definition for get_options

No definition for set_options
Installing RDoc documentation for nokogiri-1.4.1...

No definition for parse_memory

No definition for parse_file

No definition for parse_with

No definition for get_options

No definition for set_options

I haven't yet noticed any problems caused by the 'No definition' messages...