ruby-build: Build failure on 2.x and solution (related to readline)

It seems recent versions of ruby (2.x) have a hard time with readline and fail to build on many systems. The error typically being:

Installing ruby-2.1.0...

BUILD FAILED

Inspect or clean up the working tree at /tmp/ruby-build.20140317220101.16966
Results logged to /tmp/ruby-build.20140317220101.16966.log

Last 10 log lines:
checking ../.././parse.y and ../.././ext/ripper/eventids2.c
installing default ripper libraries
installing default openssl libraries
linking shared-object openssl.so
make[2]: Leaving directory '/tmp/ruby-build.20140317220101.16966/ruby-2.1.0/ext/openssl'
linking shared-object ripper.so
make[2]: Leaving directory '/tmp/ruby-build.20140317220101.16966/ruby-2.1.0/ext/ripper'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/ruby-build.20140317220101.16966/ruby-2.1.0'
uncommon.mk:180: recipe for target 'build-ext' failed
make: *** [build-ext] Error 2

While it looks like openssl error upon viewing the build log the actual culprit is readline:

make[2]: Entering directory '/tmp/ruby-build.20140317220101.16966/ruby-2.1.0/ext/ripper'
compiling ripper.c
installing default cparse libraries
linking shared-object racc/cparse.so
readline.c: In function ‘Init_readline’:
readline.c:1977:26: error: ‘Function’ undeclared (first use in this function)
     rl_pre_input_hook = (Function *)readline_pre_input_hook;
                          ^
readline.c:1977:26: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
readline.c:1977:36: error: expected expression before ‘)’ token
     rl_pre_input_hook = (Function *)readline_pre_input_hook;
                                    ^
readline.c: At top level:
readline.c:634:1: warning: ‘readline_pre_input_hook’ defined but not used [-Wunused-function]
 readline_pre_input_hook(void)
 ^
Makefile:228: recipe for target 'readline.o' failed
make[2]: *** [readline.o] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/tmp/ruby-build.20140317220101.16966/ruby-2.1.0/ext/readline'
exts.mk:198: recipe for target 'ext/readline/all' failed
make[1]: *** [ext/readline/all] Error 2

I found the following allows ruby 2.0 variants including 2.1.0 and 2.1.1 to build successfully:

RUBY_CONFIGURE_OPTS=--with-readline-dir="/usr/lib/libreadline.so" rbenv install 2.1.1

The above worked on Arch Linux and likely works on many systems with readline installed in /usr/lib/libreadline.so and more generally /some/prefix/libreadline.so

Perhaps you can update the README to cover this error and the solution because there was precious little information on overcoming this problem that I could find.

About this issue

  • Original URL
  • State: closed
  • Created 10 years ago
  • Comments: 54 (16 by maintainers)

Commits related to this issue

Most upvoted comments

Are you serious closing the issue like that? Yes it is a ruby-build issue!

I would have expected you would help users to actually succeed with ruby-build as it is NOT possible to build on many systems RIGHT NOW. I burnt a lot of time figuring out how to get it to work and no doubt others just give up and you never hear about it.

A simple heads up in your readme as you do for Mac would save people a lot of time for a current problem using your tool to achieve the goal of building ruby. It sounds like you would rather have users waste their time scratching their heads. Why then would I use ruby-build? Where is the value add?

Yes I can see there is a patch on trunk which may help with a particular readline issue but that doesn’t help me or others use ruby-build to get a functioning ruby 2.0.x or 2.1.x today.

+17
ahacking on Mar 17, 2014

Why then would I use ruby-build? Where is the value add?

@ahacking I’d like to offer you a 100% refund for your troubles.

ruby-build is a community project. I’m sorry you had some trouble getting it working. If you read the LICENSE it says—nay, it screams:

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.

To answer your question directly: the value that ruby-build provides is that you didn’t have to build your own Ruby build tool from scratch. You’re welcome.

+10
sferik on Mar 17, 2014

I’ve done all I’m going to do, if you can’t be bothered to paste my solution into your readme then the last thing I want to do is to tweak your wording and go back and forth and have a mini bikeshed over it until you get the exact wording you could have written.

I won’t be using ruby-build moving forward as there is no value in it because the maintainers clearly don’t care about their users. If you don’t care then why the fsck should I ?

I use like to use tools that actually give me something. On Mar 18, 2014 12:21 AM, “Erik Michaels-Ober” notifications@github.com wrote:

A simple heads up in your readme as you do for Mac would save people a lot of time for a current problem using your tool to achieve the goal of building ruby.

@ahacking https://github.com/ahacking This patch would be a welcome addition. Thank you for volunteering to contribute it.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/sstephenson/ruby-build/issues/526#issuecomment-37820404 .

+7
ahacking on Mar 17, 2014

I’ve got a patch for 2.0.0-p451:

curl -fsSL https://gist.github.com/EdVanDance/9738787.txt | rbenv install --patch 2.0.0-p451
+2
EdVanDance on Apr 23, 2014

If you just want to get Ruby 2.0.0-p353 working without upgrading the patch version have a look here: https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build/issues/587#issuecomment-374756360.

+1
gabriella4c on Mar 20, 2018

I already requested to support readline-6.3 to ruby-core. this issue isn’t ruby-build issue.

ref. https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/9630

+1
hsbt on Mar 17, 2014
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