# Rubygems - invalid gem format

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rubygems-invalid-gem-format/179913>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [December 7, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rubygems-invalid-gem-format/179913 "2009-12-07T23:32:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![brianspaid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@brianspaid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brianspaid)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rubygems-invalid-gem-format/179913/1 "2009-12-07T23:32:41Z")

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Hello,

I am having issues installing gems on both windows 7 and OpenSuSE 11.2.  
I installed Ruby 1.9.1 and RubyGems 1.3.5. I tried installing a few gems  
like gemcutter and heroku but I get the following error:

ERROR: Error installing heroku:  
invalid gem format for  
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/cache/rest-client-1.0.3.gem

This happens no matter what gem I try to install.

Thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brianspaid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@brianspaid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brianspaid)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rubygems-invalid-gem-format/179913/2 "2009-12-08T03:35:42Z")

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On Dec 7, 7:32 pm, Brian S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> This happens no matter what gem I try to install.  
> I believe I’ve responded to your report before, but again:

Please clear your gem cache, on any of the OS you’re using.

In any of these OS, on any RubyGems error report, please provide the  
complete information of “gem env” and the detailed trace of the  
execution of the command with debug and verbose options.

gem install heroku --debug -V

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brianspaid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@brianspaid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brianspaid)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rubygems-invalid-gem-format/179913/3 "2009-12-08T22:44:01Z")

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I seem to have fixed my problem. My original error is below. I fixed it  
by installing ruby1.8-dev gem as described at  
[http://mentalized.net/journal/2006/01/24/no\_such\_file\_to\_load\_mkmf/](http://mentalized.net/journal/2006/01/24/no_such_file_to_load_mkmf/).

ERROR: Error installing heroku:  
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb  
extconf.rb:1:in `require’: no such file to load – mkmf (LoadError)  
from extconf.rb:1

Luis L. wrote:

> On Dec 7, 7:32�pm, Brian S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> 
> > This happens no matter what gem I try to install.  
> > I believe I’ve responded to your report before, but again:
> 
> Please clear your gem cache, on any of the OS you’re using.
> 
> In any of these OS, on any RubyGems error report, please provide the  
> complete information of “gem env” and the detailed trace of the  
> execution of the command with debug and verbose options.
> 
> gem install heroku --debug -V