asdf: plugin version not resolved with ruby pg gem

Steps to reproduce

set up .tool-versions with:

postgres 9.4.7
ruby 2.6.2

asdf install (successful)
gem install bundler (successful)
gem install pg

Expected behavior

The pg gem should be able to build its native extensions as part of installation.

Its build process relies on pg_config, which is shimmed via the postgres plugin.

Actual behavior

$ gem install pg
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing pg:
	ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    current directory: /Users/mike/.asdf/installs/ruby/2.6.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.6.0/gems/pg-1.1.4/ext
/Users/mike/.asdf/installs/ruby/2.6.2/bin/ruby -I /Users/mike/.asdf/installs/ruby/2.6.2/lib/ruby/2.6.0 -r ./siteconf20190329-82337-1d85knm.rb extconf.rb
checking for pg_config... yes
Using config values from /Users/mike/.asdf/shims/pg_config
asdf: No version set for command pg_config
you might want to add one of the following in your .tool-versions file:

postgres 9.4.7
asdf: No version set for command pg_config
you might want to add one of the following in your .tool-versions file:

Environment

OS: macOS 10.14.3

asdf version: master @ 5d40982

Comments

When executing pg_config directly from the command line, through the asdf shim, it resolves to the correct pg_config binary and runs successfully. The problem occurs when the pg_config shim is invoked in the context of gem install.

After adding some debug output to lib/utils.sh, I can see that search_path is populated from pwd, which in this case is: /Users/mike/.asdf/installs/ruby/2.6.2/lib/ruby/gems/2.6.0/gems/pg-1.1.4/ext. As a result, usable_plugin_versions remains empty.

It seems that asdf assumes that pwd is going to return the directory in which my .tool-versions lives, which does have postgres 9.4.7 in it.

For now, the way I’m working around this is to set a bundler config to circumvent the use of the pg_config shim and use the installed pg_config binary directly.

Possibly related: #488

About this issue

Original URL
State: open
Created 5 years ago
Reactions: 8
Comments: 19 (7 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

@ashmckenzie the asdf where command can be helpful in commands like those:

gem

gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=$(asdf where postgres)/bin/pg_config

bundle

bundle config build.pg --with-pg-config=$(asdf where postgres)/bin/pg_config

environment variable

export BUNDLE_BUILD__PG="--with-pg-config=$(asdf where postgres)/bin/pg_config"

As long as you run these commands in a directory where you have the correct postgres version set everything will work.

+30

Stratus3D on Sep 17, 2020

setting asdf global postgres 9.4.7 helped me

+24

mpugach on Nov 6, 2019

In the context of postgres installed via asdf but no global version set, gem and bundle need a helping hand. It’s important to use the full postgres install path, not the ‘shim’ path because that won’t work:

gem

$ gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=${ASDF_DIR}/installs/postgres/<version>/bin/pg_config

bundle

$ bundle config build.pg --with-pg-config=${ASDF_DIR}/installs/postgres/<version>/bin/pg_config

or if you don’t want to use an environment variable:

$ export BUNDLE_BUILD__PG="--with-pg-config=${ASDF_DIR}/installs/postgres/<version>/bin/pg_config"

ashmckenzie on Sep 9, 2020

This is still an issue. Setting it to global though works but I think not really the solution we’re looking for. For now manually installing the gem pg using the --with-pg-config will do.

nathanjo on Jul 2, 2020

Same as @mpugach - doing asdf global postgres 11.5 sorted it for me

dtbaker on Aug 19, 2020

Only adding the pg_config flag didn’t work for me. I had to do this instead:

gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=$(asdf where postgres)/bin/pg_config --with-pg-include=$(asdf where postgres)/include --with-pg-lib=$(asdf where postgres)/lib

aalvarado on Oct 21, 2022

I also needed to do brew install postgres. I guess pg needs postgres on the system already, either from asdf or just brew or any other way.

pvinis on Apr 15, 2020

That sounds great @jthegedus !

Stratus3D on Jul 25, 2022

We could have a “kitchen sink” page in the docs under a recipes section that captures these edge cases where we document and update the caveats. It might help direct people searching the web to a solution than to opening new Issues or piling on old threads. Thoughts?

jthegedus on Jul 19, 2022

Also worked for me gem install pg -v '0.18.4' -- --with-cflags="-Wno-error=implicit-function-declaration"

oamado on Oct 5, 2021

So, correct me if I am understanding this wrong, we would need to modify the search_path command’s search for .tool-versions when shims are executed from another tool.

Anyone have suggestions for how this could be solved? Is passing pwd to any shim feasible?

I don’t have any ideas. I don’t think passing pwd to any shim is viable because other (non-asdf) commands would have to pass it along. If I understand this problem correctly Ruby’s gem command would have to actually pass pwd to the pg_config shim:

user shell process is in correct directory, invokes gem install
gem install does some magic to install the gem, eventually tries to invoke pg_config in another directory that doesn’t have a .tool-versions` file and the command fails with the version error message.

Stratus3D on Sep 17, 2020