OS X 10.8 - error trying to exec '/usr/bin/i686-apple-darwin11-gcc-4.2.1' - installing json gem

Question

I've just upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion (regretting it already).

Having issues with installing the json gem's native extentions.

Before 10.8 I had Command Line Tools installed. RVM with Ruby 1.9.2.

Upgraded to 10.8 and did the following stuff:

sudo chown -R whoami /usr/local
brew update
brew tap homebrew/dupes
brew install apple-gcc42
Installed XCode 4.4
Installed Command Line Tools for XCode 4.4
export CC=/usr/local/bin/gcc-4.2 in bash_profile
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/gcc-4.2 /usr/bin/gcc-4.2
edit: sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

I still get the following output when installing the json gem:

➽ gem install json -v '1.7.4'
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing json:
    ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

        /Users/vincent/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p320/bin/ruby extconf.rb
creating Makefile

make
/usr/bin/gcc-4.2 -I. -I/Users/vincent/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p320/include/ruby-1.9.1/x86_64-darwin11.3.0 -I/Users/vincent/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p320/include/ruby-1.9.1/ruby/backward -I/Users/vincent/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p320/include/ruby-1.9.1 -I. -DJSON_GENERATOR -I/Users/vincent/.rvm/usr/include -D_XOPEN_SOURCE -D_DARWIN_C_SOURCE   -fno-common -O3 -ggdb -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-parentheses -Wpointer-arith -Wwrite-strings -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wshorten-64-to-32 -Wno-long-long  -fno-common -pipe -O3 -Wall -O0 -ggdb  -o generator.o -c generator.c
gcc-4.2: error trying to exec '/usr/bin/i686-apple-darwin11-gcc-4.2.1': execvp: No such file or directory
make: *** [generator.o] Error 255


Gem files will remain installed in /Users/vincent/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p320@hshmrk/gems/json-1.7.4 for inspection.
Results logged to /Users/vincent/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p320@hshmrk/gems/json-1.7.4/ext/json/ext/generator/gem_make.out

Any help here? How can I debug my build env? Not an expert when it comes to this but I think the json gem installer is ignoring my environment as it's using a version of GCC that doesn't exist on my system and the brew installer doesn't create it either.

➽ gcc-4.2
i686-apple-darwin11-gcc-4.2.1: no input files

➽ which gcc-4.2
/usr/local/bin/gcc-4.2

➽ ls /usr/bin/i686-apple-darwin11-gcc-4.2.1
ls: /usr/bin/i686-apple-darwin11-gcc-4.2.1: No such file or directory

I also tried symlinking ➽ sudo link /usr/local/bin/gcc-4.2 /usr/bin/i686-apple-darwin11-gcc-4.2.1. But that gave a vfork timeout error.

edit:

➽ brew doctor
gcc-4.2: error trying to exec '/usr/bin/i686-apple-darwin11-gcc-4.2.1': execvp: No such file or directory
Warning: X11 is not installed.
You don't have X11 installed as part of your OS X installation.
This is not required for all formulae, but is expected by some.
You can download the latest version of XQuartz from:
  https://xquartz.macosforge.org

edit2:

did run xcode-select XCode

edit3:

sudo xcode-select -switch /usr/bin
sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/llvm-gcc-4.2 /usr/bin/gcc-4.2

This fixed it! Basically you tell OS X to compile using /usr/bin folder and then you link the llvm-gcc-4.2 compiler to where the old one used to be. Works! BAM!

source: http://jtimberman.housepub.org/blog/2012/02/26/xcode-command-line-tools/

SpoBo SpoBo · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-29T17:45:06

I'm under the impression that all you need to do is:

sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/llvm-gcc-4.2 /usr/bin/gcc-4.2

I tried with xcode-select XCode and the commandline tools. They both work. I also uninstalled the brew apple-gcc42 and it still works. export CC isn't needed either.

So basically just the link. Hope this solves some issues people are having.

OS X 10.8 - error trying to exec '/usr/bin/i686-apple-darwin11-gcc-4.2.1' - installing json gem

4 Answers