Installing the PostgreSQL gem with 'gem pq' fails with ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension

Question

I am learning Ruby on Rails and trying to develop an application. In my application I am trying to use the default SQLite database in the Development Mode and PostgreSQL in the Production Mode. But I'm getting the following error while trying to install pg gem using: gem install pg

Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing pg:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
 
    /home/tusharkhatiwada/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/bin/ruby extconf.rb
checking for pg_config... yes
Using config values from /usr/bin/pg_config
You need to install postgresql-server-dev-X.Y for building a server-side extension or libpq-dev
 for building a client-side application.
You need to install postgresql-server-dev-X.Y for building a server-side extension or libpq-dev
 for building a client-side application.
checking for libpq-fe.h... no
Can't find the 'libpq-fe.h header
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary
libraries and/or headers.  Check the mkmf.log file for more details.  You may
need configuration options.
 
Provided configuration options:
        --with-opt-dir
        --without-opt-dir
        --with-opt-include
        --without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
        --with-opt-lib
        --without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
        --with-make-prog
        --without-make-prog
        --srcdir=.
        --curdir
        --ruby=/home/tusharkhatiwada/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/bin/ruby
        --with-pg
        --without-pg
        --with-pg-config
        --without-pg-config
        --with-pg_config
        --without-pg_config
        --with-pg-dir
        --without-pg-dir
        --with-pg-include
        --without-pg-include=${pg-dir}/include
        --with-pg-lib
        --without-pg-lib=${pg-dir}/
 
 
Gem files will remain installed in /home/tusharkhatiwada/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/g
ems/pg-0.17.0 for inspection.
Results logged to /home/tusharkhatiwada/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/pg-0.17.0/ext
/gem_make.out

After that I again tried with gem install pg -- --with-pg-config= '/usr/bin/pg_config' and the following error is displayed:

Building native extensions with: '--with-pg-config= /usr/bin/pg_config'
This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing pg:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
 
    /home/tusharkhatiwada/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/bin/ruby extconf.rb --with-pg-config= /us
r/bin/pg_config
Using config values from 
sh: 1: : Permission denied
sh: 1: : Permission denied
checking for libpq-fe.h... no
Can't find the 'libpq-fe.h header
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary
libraries and/or headers.  Check the mkmf.log file for more details.  You may
need configuration options.
 
Provided configuration options:
        --with-opt-dir
        --without-opt-dir
        --with-opt-include
        --without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
        --with-opt-lib
        --without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
        --with-make-prog
        --without-make-prog
        --srcdir=.
        --curdir
        --ruby=/home/tusharkhatiwada/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/bin/ruby
        --with-pg
        --without-pg
        --with-pg-config
        --with-pg-dir
        --without-pg-dir
        --with-pg-include
        --without-pg-include=${pg-dir}/include
        --with-pg-lib
        --without-pg-lib=${pg-dir}/
 
 
Gem files will remain installed in /home/tusharkhatiwada/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/g
ems/pg-0.17.0 for inspection.
Results logged to /home/tusharkhatiwada/.rvm/gems/[email protected]/gems/pg-0.17.0/ext
/gem_make.out

Solution

If you are using Ubuntu try to install following lib file

sudo apt-get install libpq-dev

and then gem install pg

worked for me.

Comments

[Tushar Khatiwada]

I tried it but it also shows errors: You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these: The following packages have unmet dependencies:  libpq-dev : Depends: libkrb5-dev but it is not going to be ‌​installed              Depends: comerr-dev but it is not going to be i‌​nstalled  libssl-dev : Depends: libssl1.0.0 (= 1.0.1c-4ubuntu8.1) but‌​ 1.0.1c-4ubuntu8 is ‌​to be installed               Recommends: libssl-doc but it is not going to ‌​be installed E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no pack‌​ages (or specify a s‌​olution).

[santosh]

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install build-essential ruby-dev libpcap-dev

[Tushar Khatiwada]

This solution didn't work on my VM which was installed in cloud server at Koding but it did solve in my Laptop using Ubuntu.

[Matt Slagle]

This worked while upgrading gitlab from 5.1 to 6.0 using the turnkey linux version.

[Paritosh Piplewar]

whenever i install postgresql i know that error will occur and i will copy-paste this command to fix this problem by google-ing.

[Craig Treptow]

@TusharKhatiwada - This fixed it for me in the Koding dev environment: databasically.com/2010/03/05/…

[Jim]

How did you realise this is what was missing?

[François]

installing libpq-dev didnt work for me... but installing the libgmp-dev package did it.

[Ckt22]

E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.