# Difficulty with gem install on osX **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [August 15, 2008, 10:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/difficulty-with-gem-install-on-osx/145944 "2008-08-15T10:45:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@rick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rick)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2008, 10:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/difficulty-with-gem-install-on-osx/145944/1 "2008-08-15T10:45:24Z")
New to the RoR world view and just learning about gems - I’ve hit a snag installing two separate gems that I can’t seem to get past with one of them. My environment is osX 10.5.4 on a ppc processor. I have gcc 4.1 (and related tools) installed as well as mysql-5.0.51a. ruby --version =\> ruby 1.8.6 (2008-03-03 patchlevel 114) [universal-darwin9.0] and rails –version =\> Rails 2.1.0. My problem has been with the RMagick and MySQL gems, and is related to these gems attempting to build for both the ppc and 386 architectures via --arch options for both appearing in the gcc command that is generated during the install process. I was able to step around the problem with RMagick by editing the options out of the generated makefile, doing the make directly. Not too satisfying but it did build, test, and install. No such luck with the MySQL gem however. Any thoughts or suggestions? Where / how is the makefile generated? Who decided that I wanted both architectures build for a ppc only environment? Is it even possible to build a foreign arch without a cross compiler? thanks in advance Rick ---
**Author:** ![rick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@rick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rick)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2008, 10:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/difficulty-with-gem-install-on-osx/145944/2 "2008-08-15T10:48:21Z")
On Aug 15, 9:40 am, Rick [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Any thoughts or suggestions? Where / how is the makefile generated? > Who decided that I wanted both architectures build for a ppc only > environment? Is it even possible to build a foreign arch without a > cross compiler? ruby generates the makefile (via extconf.rb, ie mkmf). The problem you’ve got is that since you’ve got a universal build of ruby it’s trying to build universal extensions. See also > **[Perl, Python, and Ruby Extensions Release Notes](https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/releasenotes/OpenSource/PerlExtensionsRelNotes/index.html)** > > Describes how to create universal binary extensions for Perl, Python, and Ruby. (i know it says perl extensions, but it applies to ruby too) Surprise, you’ve got a cross compiler: a ppc mac can build i386 binaries and vice-versa. Fred ---
**Author:** ![rick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@rick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rick)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2008, 11:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/difficulty-with-gem-install-on-osx/145944/3 "2008-08-15T11:12:24Z")
So here’s my first attempt, using ksh: export ARCHFLAGS=‘-arch ppc’ sudo gem install mysql it’s going to cook for a while so… Yes, I know that gcc can be built as a cross compiler but I’m not particularly interested in dedicating time/space to building for a system I don’t have. cooking’s done, more burned toast. same -arch ppc -arch i386 failure that looks like this: “gcc -o conftest -I. -I/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/ Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/universal-darwin9. 0 -I. -I/usr/local/include -arch ppc -arch i386 -Os -pipe -fno-common conftest.c -L”." -L"/System/Library/Frame works/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib" -L"/usr/local/lib" -L. - arch ppc -arch i386 -lruby -lmysqlclient -lpthread -ldl -lm " cc1: error: unrecognized command line option “-arch” cc1: error: unrecognized command line option “-arch” cc1: error: unrecognized command line option “-arch” cc1: error: unrecognized command line option “-arch” life would be much simpler if we had all continued to follow Dennis Ritchie et.al. off to Plan9, eh? On Aug 14, 10:47 pm, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![rick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@rick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rick)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2008, 11:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/difficulty-with-gem-install-on-osx/145944/4 "2008-08-15T11:38:13Z")
On 15 Aug 2008, at 10:33, Rick wrote: > so here’s what worked… > > sudo env ARCHFLAGS=’’ gem install mysql > > thanks for your help Yup, that’s important as sudo cleans up the environment before executing the command you’ve asked so your ARCHFLAGS settings get ignored Fred ---
**Author:** ![rick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@rick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rick)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2008, 11:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/difficulty-with-gem-install-on-osx/145944/5 "2008-08-15T11:34:41Z")
so here’s what worked… sudo env ARCHFLAGS=’’ gem install mysql thanks for your help Rick