# Installing libxml on osx as Gem

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-libxml-on-osx-as-gem/70317>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [September 28, 2006, 5:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-libxml-on-osx-as-gem/70317 "2006-09-28T05:36:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nicholas.henry](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/e8c25b/32.png) [@nicholas.henry](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nicholas.henry)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 5:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-libxml-on-osx-as-gem/70317/1 "2006-09-28T05:36:52Z")

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I’m trying to install libxml on osx as a gem (Ruby 1.8.2). Any ideas on  
how to resolve these issues? (please see output below)

Thank you,  
Nicholas

Attempting local installation of ‘libxml’  
Local gem file not found: libxml\*.gem  
Attempting remote installation of ‘libxml’  
Building native extensions. This could take a while…  
extconf.rb:64: undefined method `find\_header’ for main:Object  
(NoMethodError)  
ERROR: While executing gem … (RuntimeError)  
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.  
Gem files will remain installed in  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/libxml-ruby-0.3.8 for inspection.  
ruby extconf.rb install libxml\nchecking for socket() in -lsocket…  
no  
checking for gethostbyname() in -lnsl… no  
checking for atan() in -lm… no  
checking for atan() in -lm… yes  
checking for inflate() in -lz… yes  
checking for iconv\_open() in -liconv… yes  
checking for xmlParseDoc() in -lxml2… yes  
checking for libxml/xmlversion.h… no

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**Author:** ![nicholas.henry](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/e8c25b/32.png) [@nicholas.henry](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nicholas.henry)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-libxml-on-osx-as-gem/70317/2 "2006-09-28T13:41:42Z")

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On Thu, 2006-09-28 at 12:35 +0900, nicholas.henry wrote:

> extconf.rb:64: undefined method `find\_header’ for main:Object  
> checking for inflate() in -lz… yes  
> checking for iconv\_open() in -liconv… yes  
> checking for xmlParseDoc() in -lxml2… yes  
> checking for libxml/xmlversion.h… no

Hmm, find\_header should be defined by mkmf, so I don’t understand what’s  
going on there. Maybe it’s something to do with OSX - has anyone else  
seen this?

Anyway, could you post up your ruby version? Also, the results of  
running this:

$ ruby -rmkmf -e ‘find\_header(“libxml/xmlversion.h”,  
“/usr/include/libxml2”)’

Thanks,

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nicholas.henry](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/e8c25b/32.png) [@nicholas.henry](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nicholas.henry)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2006, 4:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-libxml-on-osx-as-gem/70317/3 "2006-10-12T04:22:00Z")

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Upgrading to 1.8.4 resolved this.