How to install MySQL gem on Mac OS X

Question

What do I need to install mysql gem on Mac OS X ? I'm getting error "failed to build native extensions".

Answer 1

Install MySQL first, either by using binary or Homebrew.

Then:

gem install mysql2

Or:

gem install ruby-mysql

Just pick one and you are good to go.

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Edit

In case you upgraded to MySQL version 5.6.12 on OS X, mysql2 will fail to compile. Solution is to downgrade MySQL as described here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/17252887/45254

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Edit2

In case you don't want to have mysql installed (maybe you use docker to manage your services) but do want to use mysql2 gem, you can instead install mysql-connector-c (using homebrew).

Answer 2

Some time back I wrote some instructions on my blog on how to do it in 10.6, but I think it's the same in 10.5.

I comes down to this command:

ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install mysql -- \
  --with-mysql-config=/path/to/mysql_config

but you need to find the real value for /path/to/mysql_config. My blog post has a few tips, but there's one very important thing: you must have installed MySQL with headers. The official .pkg installer from MySQL doesn't IIRC. The best thing to do is to install MySQL with Homebrew (in the post I use examples from a MacPorts install, but that's because Homebrew wasn't mature when I wrote it).

If you install MySQL with Homebrew mysql_config will be located at /usr/local/bin/mysql_config and if you install it with MacPorts it will be at /opt/local/lib/mysql5/bin/mysql_config.

I concur with the other answer that suggest that you install the mysql2 gem instead of mysql. I think the command above should work for mysql2 too.

Answer 3

For me it did the most easy:

brew install mysql
gem install mysql

Brew is a package manager for Mac OS, a must have. Using it to install mysql first brings everything that the gem command is missing.

Answer 4

I install MySQL with DWG mysql_config will be located at /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config

gem install mysql -- \ --with mysql-config=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config 

Answer 5

I'm running Mac OS X Lion with Homebrew.

The correct command to install a ruby gem is…

gem install mysql -- \ --with-mysql-config=/usr/local/bin/mysql_config 

Answer 6

if you already have MySQL server running elsewhere on the network and would like to still install the gem without having to install MySQL try the following

brew install mysql-connector-c

followed by

gem install mysql

Answer 7

I came across this issue while setting up MySQL gem on MacOs Mojave .This worked for me

1 Ensure Xcode command line tools are installed. xcode-select --install

2. For me the build was still failing with some header files missing which you have to install open /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Packages/macOS_SDK_headers_for_macOS_10.14.pkg

This link pointed to right direction. Can't compile C program on a Mac after upgrade to Mojave

Answer 8

I installed MySQL with Homebrew and I had to use this to finally be able to upgrade the gem:

gem install mysql2 -- --with-mysql-dir=/usr/local/opt/mysql/

Answer 9

I'm using Mac OS X Mountain Lion, and installed MySQL with DMG.

gem install do_mysql -- \ --with-mysql-dir=/usr/local/mysql --with-mysql-lib=/usr/local/mysql/lib --with-mysql-include=/usr/local/mysql/include

and

sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib

This works for me ;)

Answer 10

I'm using Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), and to me worked with the command bellow:

gem install mysql2 -- \ --with-mysql-config=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config