# Readline extension doesn't compile with ruby-1.8.4 on RedHat

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/readline-extension-doesnt-compile-with-ruby-1-8-4-on-redhat/53371>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 2, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/readline-extension-doesnt-compile-with-ruby-1-8-4-on-redhat/53371 "2006-02-02T18:40:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sascha\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Sascha\_E](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sascha_E)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/readline-extension-doesnt-compile-with-ruby-1-8-4-on-redhat/53371/1 "2006-02-02T18:40:46Z")

</div>

Hi,

I am basically following this guide:

> **[Dan Benjamin](https://danbenjamin.com)**
>
> Dan Benjamin's personal website.

and do

curl -O ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline/readline-5.1.tar.gz  
tar xzvf readline-5.1.tar.gz  
cd readline-5.1  
./configure --prefix=/usr/local  
make  
make install

fine. Then

curl -O ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.8/ruby-1.8.4.tar.gz  
tar xzvf ruby-1.8.4.tar.gz  
cd ruby-1.8.4  
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-readline-dir=/usr/local  
make  
make install

fine too. I don’t get any errors. But

$ ls -w 20 /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/i686-linux/_.so  
bigdecimal.so_  
dbm.so\*  
digest.so\*  
dl.so\*  
enumerator.so\*  
eruby.so\*  
etc.so\*  
fcntl.so\*  
iconv.so\*  
nkf.so\*  
openssl.so\*  
pty.so\*  
sdbm.so\*  
socket.so\*  
stringio.so\*  
strscan.so\*  
syck.so\*  
syslog.so\*  
tcltklib.so\*  
tkutil.so\*  
zlib.so\*

No readline.so in there. What am I doing wrong?

Here is the part of the output where it says it compiles, but it  
actually  
doesn’t:

compiling racc/cparse  
make[1]: Entering directory  
`/usr/src/install/ruby-1.8.4/ext/racc/cparse' make[1]: Nothing to be done for `all’.  
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/install/ruby-1.8.4/ext/racc/cparse' compiling readline compiling sdbm make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/install/ruby-1.8.4/ext/sdbm’  
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `all'. make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/install/ruby-1.8.4/ext/sdbm’  
compiling socket

$ find /install/ruby-1.8.4 -name \*.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/bigdecimal.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/dbm.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/digest.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/digest/md5.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/digest/rmd160.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/digest/sha1.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/digest/sha2.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/dl.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/enumerator.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/etc.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/fcntl.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/iconv.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/io/wait.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/nkf.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/openssl.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/pty.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/racc/cparse.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/sdbm.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/socket.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/stringio.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/strscan.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/syck.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/syslog.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/tcltklib.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/tkutil.so  
./.ext/i686-linux/zlib.so

-Sascha E.