Gem Install: Failed to Build Gem Native Extension (Can't Find Header Files)

Error while installing json gem 'mkmf.rb can't find header files for ruby'

Modern era update, as stated by mimoralea:

In case that you are using ruby 2.0 or 2.2 (thanks @patrick-davey).

sudo apt-get install ruby2.0-dev
sudo apt-get install ruby2.2-dev
sudo apt-get install ruby2.3-dev

or, generic way:

sudo apt-get install ruby-dev

or

sudo apt-get install ruby`ruby -e 'puts RUBY_VERSION[/\d+\.\d+/]'`-dev

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The first link you’ve posted is exactly your case: there is no ruby development environment installed. Development env is needed to compile ruby extensions, which are mostly written in C. Proxy has nothing to do with the problem: everything is downloaded fine, just compilation fails.

I would suggest you to install ruby-dev (ruby-devel for rpm-based distros) package onto you target machine.

gcc package might be needed as well.

Try:

$ sudo apt-get install ruby-dev

Or, for Redhat distro:

$ sudo yum install ruby-devel

Or, for [open]SuSE:

$ sudo zypper install ruby-devel

gem install: Failed to build gem native extension (can't find header files)

For those who may be confused by the accepted answer, as I was, you also need to have the ruby headers installed [ruby-devel].

The article that saved my hide is here.

And this is the revised solution (note that I'm on Fedora 13):

yum -y install gcc mysql-devel ruby-devel rubygems
gem install -y mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/bin/mysql_config

For Debian, and other distributions using Debian style packaging the ruby development headers are installed by:

sudo apt-get install ruby-dev

For Ubuntu the ruby development headers are installed by:

sudo apt-get install ruby-all-dev

If you are using a earlier version of ruby (such as 2.2), then you will need to run:

sudo apt-get install ruby2.2-dev

(where 2.2 is your desired Ruby version)

Error: Failed to build gem native extension (can't find header files for ruby.h)

Well I suspect you actually need ruby2.4-dev if you're using ruby 2.4. But I'd recommend not using system ruby and installing gems globally with sudo in the first place. Using a ruby environment manager such as rbenv is the best way to avoid dependency hell. Here's a good overview of the available options: http://kgrz.io/programmers-guide-to-choosing-ruby-version-manager.html

Ruby on Rails webp-ffi gem installation fails. Can't find C header files

I solved this by uninstalling everything (node.js, ruby, rbenv, homebrew, etc.) and redoing the whole install process using Rosetta.

To use Rosetta right click on your Terminal application, go to 'Get Info', and check the 'Launch Using Rosetta' checkbox

gem native extension error while installing cocoapods

Open Terminal

curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable

Reopen Terminal

rvm install ruby-2.6

rvm use ruby-2.6.3

rvm --default use 2.6.3

From MahmoudKhaled's comment on
link

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