mysql.h is missing … (Ruby on Rails, OSX)

Question

I tried several ideas ... none of them worked ... I\'m just trying to install mysql2 as a gem. My mysql is working, but every time my system says, that mysql.h is missing .

Answer 1

If you're using the standard XAMPP this could be the problem, you could probably need to install xampp-devel which is the development package for xampp, this distribution contains mysql headers *.h files as well as other related sources, you can find older versions in here.

you can than copy the include directory in your /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles then install gem using this command:

sudo gem install mysql2 -v 0.3.21 -- --with-mysql-config=/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/bin/mysql_config --with-mysql-include=/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/include/ --no-ri --no-rdoc

this version worked for me, and don't need to include --with-mysql-dir if you specify mysql_config path, and then you should get a similar output:

This could take a while...
Successfully installed mysql2-0.3.21
Parsing documentation for mysql2-0.3.21
Installing ri documentation for mysql2-0.3.21
Done installing documentation for mysql2 after 0 seconds
1 gem installed

you may also need to provide rails with the correct version of libmysqlclient, here is an example using Symlink:

sudo ln -s /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib /usr/local/lib/libmysqlclient.18.dylib

Don't forget in update bundle packages.