How to fix libv8 error from Gemfile on Mavericks?

Question

When I run bundle install I get

An error occurred while installing libv8 (3.11.8.17), and Bundler cannot continue.
Make sure that `gem install libv8 -v '3.11.8.17'` succeeds before bundling.

Libv8 is dependency for lunchy and therubyracer gems.

I have locked in my Gemfile.lock libv8 gem on 3.11.8.17

But I found that I can downgrade it to 3.3.10.4

bundle install / update: libv8 (therubyracer) installation fails (with native extensions)

How to do that?

I also found working 3.11.8.17 gem but don't know how to implement it on my system. https://github.com/cowboyd/libv8/issues/107#issuecomment-26146673

Solution 1

You can actually install that version on Mavericks:

gem install libv8 -v 3.11.8.17 -- --with-system-v8

I can confirm this works with rbenv and ruby 1.9.3p448

See a similar thread here Installing libv8 gem on OS X 10.9+

Solution 2

You need to reinstall libv8

$ gem uninstall libv8
$ brew install v8
$ gem install therubyracer

Solution 3

Try with

gem "therubyracer", "~> 0.10.2" to Gemfile

And it will install dependent gem libv8 (3.3.10.4) and the issue of build gem native extension failure got resolve.

Comments

[Nikola]

worked like a charm for me. what's the long term implication of using this over homebrew? Is it going to be more difficult to maintain?

[Oliver Shaw]

Hi Nikola. Homebrew packages are getting there with Mavericks. However there are some things you can do to set up for success with your gem compilations etc. See stackoverflow.com/a/19668162/2012130