docker-alpine: Unable to install ruby gem 'nokogiri'

Hi, I am using base image of gliderlabs/alpine:3.1, and found that not able to instal ruby gems nokogiri.

My Dockerfile

RUN apk add --update \
  bash \
  ca-certificates \
  libxml2 \
  libxslt \
  gcc \
  ruby \
  ruby-bundler \
  ruby-dev \
  nodejs \
  mysql-client \
  imagemagick \
  nginx \
  && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/* \
  && adduser -D app \
  && gem install bundler --no-document \
  && gem install rails nokogiri \
  && npm install -g react-tools babel

As I want to install nokogiri, following error shows:

Gem::Ext::BuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.>

    /usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb
 Building nokogiri using packaged libraries.
 -----
 libiconv is missing.  please visit http://nokogiri.org/tutorials/installing_nokogiri.html for help with installing dependencies.
 -----
*** 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=/usr/bin/ruby
    --help
    --clean
    --use-system-libraries
    --enable-static
    --disable-static
    --with-zlib-dir
    --without-zlib-dir
    --with-zlib-include
    --without-zlib-include=${zlib-dir}/include
    --with-zlib-lib
    --without-zlib-lib=${zlib-dir}/lib
    --enable-cross-build
    --disable-cross-build

 extconf failed, exit code 1

Gem files will remain installed in /home/app/webapp/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.1.0/gems/nokogiri-1.6.3.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /home/app/webapp/vendor/bundle/ruby/2.1.0/extensions/x86_64-linux/2.1.0/nokogiri-1.6.3.1/gem_make.out
An error occurred while installing nokogiri (1.6.3.1), and Bundler cannot
continue.

Is there any way to avoid this?

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 9 years ago
Reactions: 2
Comments: 22 (2 by maintainers)

Commits related to this issue

Remove config no longer necessary More Info https://github.com/gliderlabs/docker-alpine/issues/53 — committed to bitzesty/qae by theharq 8 years ago
Fix issue with nokogiri https://github.com/gliderlabs/docker-alpine/issues/53 — committed to mdouchement/breizhtrip by deleted user 8 years ago
Fix issue with nokogiri https://github.com/gliderlabs/docker-alpine/issues/53 — committed to mdouchement/breizhtrip by deleted user 8 years ago
fix docker build Nokogiri >= 1.6.8 doesn't need the `--use-system-libraries` flag any longer to build properly. Source: https://github.com/gliderlabs/docker-alpine/issues/53 — committed to klausmeyer/docker-registry-browser by klausmeyer 8 years ago
Remove --use-system-libraries Building this Docker container was failing as --use-system-libraries is no more necessary since nokogiri 1.6.8. Per [this GitHub discussion](https://github.com/gliderla... — committed to ojacques/html-proofer-docker by ojacques 8 years ago
Removing --use-system-libraries REF: https://github.com/gliderlabs/docker-alpine/issues/53 — committed to parafuzo/ruby-base by deleted user 8 years ago
Follow suggestions from [here](https://github.com/gliderlabs/docker-alpine/issues/53) — committed to mimimalizam/debugging-ruby-nokogiri by mimimalizam 7 years ago

Most upvoted comments

Thanks @joffotron and @mattaitchison, this fixed it for me:

FROM ruby:2.3.0-alpine
# ...
RUN apk add --update \
  build-base \
  libxml2-dev \
  libxslt-dev \
  postgresql-dev \
  && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*

# Use libxml2, libxslt a packages from alpine for building nokogiri
RUN bundle config build.nokogiri --use-system-libraries

+199

babasbot on Feb 3, 2016

Adding libxml2-dev libxslt-dev to apk add fixed it for me…

+27

romdim on Jan 21, 2016

nokogiri now bundles its own libxml2, which doesn’t compile on alpine (looks like a pthreads thing maybe?). You can get it to use the libxml2(-dev) package on Alpine by:

gem install nokogiri --use-system-libraries

bundle config build.nokogiri --use-system-libraries
bundle install

Hopefully this helps someone else looking for help.

+25

joffotron on Jan 16, 2016

As of nokogiri 1.6.8, the --use-system-libraries work-around is unnecessary.

+23

ruudud on Jun 8, 2016

In my case RUN apk update && apk add build-base was enough to install nokogiri 1.8.2 because:

In Nokogiri 1.6.0 and later libxml2 and libxslt are bundled with the gem, …

source: https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri#requirements

+16

dmshvetsov on Mar 26, 2018

Thanks @ruudud my build was actually failing when I used --use-system-libraries and I needed to remove that in order to have succesful build.

+14

onnimonni on Jun 8, 2016

This worked for me,

RUN apk add --no-cache build-base

Here is the reference Installing Nokogiri

gr1d99 on Sep 17, 2019

Cleaner version of Dockerfile for nokogiri.

FROM ruby:2.5-alpine
# ...
RUN apk add --no-cache \
  build-base \
  libxml2-dev \
  libxslt-dev
# ...

Update: @kylev add document for this issue. Refer to https://github.com/gliderlabs/docker-alpine/issues/53#issuecomment-532467114

ghost on Sep 18, 2019

Hi, (caveat - beginner docker user), I have managed to successfully install nokogiri on alpine 3.2 by using the package name ruby-nokogiri (see packages listing). That is, via Dockerfile:

RUN apk add ruby ruby-nokogiri

maybe that helps?

robstwd on Jul 27, 2015

Building native extensions requires certain system libraries and the build-base package.

You can see how ruby-nokogiri is built and what dependencies are required by looking at its APKBUILD file. View Here

Feel free to reopen this issue if you are still having problems.

mattatcha on Jul 28, 2015

I added additional documentation (as @gr1d99 mentioned) in sparklemotion/nokogiri.org#23

kylev on Sep 18, 2019

This works for me

RUN apk update && apk upgrade

RUN apk add ruby=2.5.2-r0 ruby-bundler ruby-nokogiri ruby-dev build-base libxml2-dev libxslt-dev libffi-dev

carlomallone on Nov 8, 2018

Basically

FROM ruby:2.3-alpine

RUN mkdir /usr/src/app \
    && chown $(id -un):$(id -gn) /usr/src/app \
    && apk add --no-cache build-base \
    && gem install bundler

ENV RAILS_ENV=development

COPY . /usr/src/app

RUN cd /usr/src/app \
    && bundle install --no-color

WORKDIR /usr/src/app
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["bundle", "exec", "rake", "server"]

BerkhanBerkdemir on Apr 16, 2018