Invalid date error when installing syntax gem

Ruby
1

Anyone else getting this error? I didn’t find any recent mention of it.

gem install syntax --backtrace
ERROR: While executing gem … (ArgumentError)
invalid date
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/date.rb:727:in new' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/yaml.rb:133:innode_import’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/yaml.rb:133:in load' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/yaml.rb:133:inload’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/specification.rb:476:in
from_yaml' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/package/tar_input.rb:182:inload_gemspec’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/package/tar_input.rb:50:in
initialize' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/package/tar_reader.rb:63:ineach’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/package/tar_reader.rb:54:in
loop' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/package/tar_reader.rb:54:ineach’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/package/tar_input.rb:31:in
initialize' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/package/tar_input.rb:16:innew’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/package/tar_input.rb:16:in
open' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/package.rb:56:inopen’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/format.rb:67:in from_io' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/format.rb:51:infrom_file_by_path’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/format.rb:50:in open' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/format.rb:50:infrom_file_by_path’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/installer.rb:119:in
initialize' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/dependency_installer.rb:239:innew’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/dependency_installer.rb:239:in
install' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/dependency_installer.rb:222:ineach’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/dependency_installer.rb:222:in
install' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/commands/install_command.rb:118:inexecute’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/commands/install_command.rb:115:in
each' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/commands/install_command.rb:115:inexecute’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/command.rb:257:in invoke' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/command_manager.rb:132:inprocess_args’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/command_manager.rb:102:in
run' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/gem_runner.rb:58:inrun’
/usr/local/bin/gem:21

2

Joel VanderWerf wrote:

Anyone else getting this error? I didn’t find any recent mention of it.

gem install syntax --backtrace
ERROR: While executing gem … (ArgumentError)
invalid date

Forgot to say: this is the only gem with this problem. I set up a new
system today with about 40 other gems that installed fine, except the
ones dependent on syntax.

There’s no improvement when downloading the gem file and installing it.
The same version of syntax (1.0.0) has worked for me before, with the
same versions of ruby and gem.

$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.6 (2008-08-11 patchlevel 287) [i686-linux]
$ gem --version
1.3.5

However, I’m using gcc 4.4.1 for the first time (ubuntu 9.10).

3

On Nov 4, 6:14 am, Joel VanderWerf [email protected] wrote:

ones dependent on syntax.
However, I’m using gcc 4.4.1 for the first time (ubuntu 9.10).

–
vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407

Hi,

I was getting the same error when installing cucumber (it depends on
diff-lcs, which depends on syntax). And after a few long hours of
fighting with this bug I have found a solution!

It turns out there is a bug in ruby 1.8.6 for 64 bit architecture. And
guess what, the problem is with date. You can read more about the bug,
and the solution, here: http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/issues/show/1735.
So, to solve the problem I had to compile ruby myself. Here are the
steps I did:

  1. wget ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.8/ruby-1.8.6-p286.tar.gz
  2. tar zxf ruby-1.8.6-p286.tar.gz
  3. cd ruby-1.8.6-p286

Now I changed some ext settings, as described here:
http://blog.ghandal.net/2009/01/

  1. vim ext/Setup, and uncomment some extensions:

#Win32API
#bigdecimal
curses
#dbm
digest
digest/md5
#digest/rmd160
digest/sha1
digest/sha2
dl
enumerator
#etc
#fcntl
#gdbm
iconv
#io/wait
#nkf
#pty
openssl
#racc/cparse
readline
#sdbm
socket
stringio
strscan
syck
syslog
#tcltklib
thread
#tk
#win32ole
zlib

  1. ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-openssl-dir=/usr --with-
    readline-dir=/usr --with-zlib-dir=/usr

This assumes ruby will be install under /usr/local

Now before you run make, you MUST apply the fix from here:
http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/issues/show/1735

  1. vim Makefile

and apply the fix:

  • CFLAGS = -g -O2 -DRUBY_EXPORT -D_GNU_SOURCE=1
  • CFLAGS = -g -DRUBY_EXPORT -D_GNU_SOURCE=1

save the file and then

  1. make
  2. sudo make install

Then I would suggest installing rubygems manually:

  1. wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/60718/rubygems-1.3.5.tgz
  2. tar zxf rubygems-1.3.5.tgz
  3. cd rubygems-1.3.5/
  4. sudo ruby setup.rb

Now you should be all set and ready to install the syntax gem, and any
others than depend on it, like cucumber in my case.

Wow, I must admit that was my longest ruby installation ever …

Good luck!

Kind regards,
Marcin Domanski

4

Luis L. wrote:

The problem is related to gcc 4.4 and some issue with date parsing.

Try getting gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.2-1ubuntu4) 4.4.2

Thanks!

I tried to find 4.4.2 in karmic-proposed or karmic-backports, but no
luck. Do you install 4.4.2 from lucid? From source?

I added a comment on launchpad about this… I would hope that, since
4.4.2 is a bugfix release, it gets pushed into the updates for karmic.

5

On Nov 4, 2:14 am, Joel VanderWerf [email protected] wrote:

ones dependent on syntax.
However, I’m using gcc 4.4.1 for the first time (ubuntu 9.10).

The problem is related to gcc 4.4 and some issue with date parsing.

Try getting gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.2-1ubuntu4) 4.4.2

6

Any news on this? I’m having the same issue and I guess I’ll have to
go through the manual install if there has been no patch submitted
yet…

Thanks
Victor

7

Victor wrote:

Try getting gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.2-1ubuntu4) 4.4.2
Thanks!

I tried to find 4.4.2 in karmic-proposed or karmic-backports, but no
luck. Do you install 4.4.2 from lucid? From source?

I added a comment on launchpad about this… I would hope that, since
4.4.2 is a bugfix release, it gets pushed into the updates for karmic.

Victor,

if you’re on ubuntu, you can install gcc-4.3, export CC=‘gcc-4.3’, and
rebuild ruby. Anyway, that fixed it for me.

8

I use Ruby Enterprise Edition. I got around the problem by installing
the latest REE version (ruby-enterprise-1.8.7-2009.10)