Install the pg gem in a Homebrew environment

Topics: Homebrew, Ruby gems, PostgreSQL

When Postgresql, or rather libpq, is installed via Homebrew, installing the pg gem will require you to provide information on where to find its include and library files.

Installation via gem

To install install the gem directly:

gem install pg -- \
  --with-pg-config=$(brew --prefix libpq)/include \
  --with-pg-lib=$(brew --prefix libpq)/lib

Installation via bundler

For Bundler, it’s ideal to store the build configuration centrally:

bundle config --global build.pg \
  --with-pg-include=$($brew --prefix libpq)/include \
  --with-pg-lib=$(brew --prefix libpq)/lib
bundle install

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