# Error Installing Ferret on Mac OS X 10.8.5

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/error-installing-ferret-on-mac-os-x-10-8-5/240615>\
**Category:** Ferret\
**Created:** [April 23, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/error-installing-ferret-on-mac-os-x-10-8-5/240615 "2014-04-23T14:47:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![musicdenotation](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@musicdenotation](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/musicdenotation)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/error-installing-ferret-on-mac-os-x-10-8-5/240615/1 "2014-04-23T14:47:21Z")

</div>

Hi,

I try to install Ferret on my Mac (OS X 10.8.5) using the command “sudo  
gem install ferret” and get the error message, shown below.

The Mac does have Ruby installed on it and I use Ruby frequently to  
successfully build informatics scripts. When I run “ruby -v” I get…  
“ruby 1.8.7 (2012-02-08 patchlevel 358) [universal-darwin12.0]”

Any idea as to what the error message means (in English) and how best to  
proceed?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

* * *

Building native extensions. This could take a while…  
ERROR: Error installing ferret:  
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby  
extconf.rb  
mkmf.rb can’t find header files for ruby at  
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/ruby.h

Gem files will remain installed in  
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/ferret-0.11.8.5 for inspection.  
Results logged to  
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/ferret-0.11.8.5/ext/gem\_make.out

* * *