# Invalid date error when installing syntax gem

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/invalid-date-error-when-installing-syntax-gem/178409>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 4, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/invalid-date-error-when-installing-syntax-gem/178409 "2009-11-04T05:18:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Joel_VanderWerf)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/invalid-date-error-when-installing-syntax-gem/178409/1 "2009-11-04T05:18:22Z")

</div>

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:in`node\_import’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/yaml.rb:133:in `load' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/yaml.rb:133:in`load’  
/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:in`load\_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:in`each’  
/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:in`each’  
/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:in`new’  
/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:in`open’  
/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:in`from\_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:in`from\_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:in`new’  
/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:in`each’  
/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:in`execute’  
/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:in`execute’  
/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:in`process\_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:in`run’  
/usr/local/bin/gem:21

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Joel_VanderWerf)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/invalid-date-error-when-installing-syntax-gem/178409/2 "2009-11-04T06:15:44Z")

</div>

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).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Joel_VanderWerf)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/invalid-date-error-when-installing-syntax-gem/178409/3 "2009-11-26T23:37:42Z")

</div>

On Nov 4, 6:14 am, Joel VanderWerf [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) 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](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/](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](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](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

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Joel_VanderWerf)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/invalid-date-error-when-installing-syntax-gem/178409/4 "2009-11-27T21:04:05Z")

</div>

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.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Joel_VanderWerf)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/invalid-date-error-when-installing-syntax-gem/178409/5 "2009-11-27T02:46:08Z")

</div>

On Nov 4, 2:14 am, Joel VanderWerf [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) 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

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Joel_VanderWerf)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/invalid-date-error-when-installing-syntax-gem/178409/6 "2009-12-02T21:40:18Z")

</div>

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

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Joel_VanderWerf)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/invalid-date-error-when-installing-syntax-gem/178409/7 "2009-12-02T21:59:37Z")

</div>

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.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Joel\_VanderWerf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Joel_VanderWerf)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/invalid-date-error-when-installing-syntax-gem/178409/8 "2009-12-26T02:56:10Z")

</div>

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