Quick tip: install mysql gem w/ homebrew

Ok, you've got OS X and you've installed most of your packages with homebrew, including mysql. Now it's time to install the gem and you keep getting errors that say something along the lines of ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.


With OS X you have a few extra parameters you need to pass along. Here, I'm installing an older version of the mysql gem pointing it to the mysql_config file that resides in my current mysql version (5.1.51). Your path may vary but it shouldn't vary a lot.

sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install -v=2.7 mysql --  --with-mysql-config=/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.1.51/bin/mysql_config

Remove the -v=2.7 to get the latest version instead (2.8.1) or better yet, use the mysql2 gem if you can.