Ruby 3.1.3 fails to build on Fedora 42

[erikastr]

Hello,

I am unable to build Ruby 3.1.3 or any older versions on Fedora 42. Has anyone faced a similar issue?

$ ~ rbenv install 3.1.3
==> Downloading ruby-3.1.3.tar.gz...
-> curl -q -fL -o ruby-3.1.3.tar.gz https://cache.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/3.1/ruby-3.1.3.tar.gz
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 19.9M  100 19.9M    0     0  34.0M      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 34.0M
==> Installing ruby-3.1.3...

WARNING: ruby-3.1.3 is nearing its end of life.
It only receives critical security updates, no bug fixes.

-> ./configure "--prefix=$HOME/.rbenv/versions/3.1.3" --enable-shared --with-ext=openssl,psych,+
-> make -j 16

BUILD FAILED (Fedora Linux 42 on x86_64 using ruby-build 20250430)

You can inspect the build directory at /tmp/ruby-build.20250505130648.221804.prcCh7
See the full build log at /tmp/ruby-build.20250505130648.221804.log

Build error:

In file included from ./enc/euc_jp.c:503:
enc/jis/props.kwd:146:1: error: conflicting types for ‘onig_jis_property’; have ‘const struct enc_property *(const char *, size_t)’ {aka ‘const struct enc_property *(const char *, long unsigned int)’}
enc/jis/props.kwd:40:35: note: previous declaration of ‘onig_jis_property’ with type ‘const struct enc_property *(void)’
   40 | static const struct enc_property *onig_jis_property(/*!ANSI{*/const char *str, unsigned int len/*}!ANSI*/);
      |                                   ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
cc1: note: unrecognized command-line option ‘-Wno-self-assign’ may have been intended to silence earlier diagnostics
cc1: note: unrecognized command-line option ‘-Wno-parentheses-equality’ may have been intended to silence earlier diagnostics
cc1: note: unrecognized command-line option ‘-Wno-constant-logical-operand’ may have been intended to silence earlier diagnostics
make[1]: *** [enc.mk:645: enc/euc_jp.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
configuring fcntl
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/ruby-build.20250505130648.221804.prcCh7/ruby-3.1.3'
make: *** [uncommon.mk:888: enc] Error 2
make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

Full log:
ruby-build.20250505130648.221804.log

Ruby 3.3.6 seems to build just fine:

$ ~ rbenv install 3.3.6
==> Downloading ruby-3.3.6.tar.gz...
-> curl -q -fL -o ruby-3.3.6.tar.gz https://cache.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/3.3/ruby-3.3.6.tar.gz
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 21.1M  100 21.1M    0     0  31.6M      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 31.6M
==> Installing ruby-3.3.6...
-> ./configure "--prefix=$HOME/.rbenv/versions/3.3.6" --enable-shared --with-ext=openssl,psych,+
-> make -j 16
-> make install
==> Installed ruby-3.3.6 to /home/erikas/.rbenv/versions/3.3.6

NOTE: to activate this Ruby version as the new default, run: rbenv global 3.3.6

[mislav]

Hi, I'm not a Fedora user, but I haven't seen this particular issue reported to us until now.

Looking at the Ruby source code repo, it looks like they've made a change affecting the line where your error stems from: ruby/ruby@4574191

The change is only from Ruby 3.2 onward; maybe it's some kind of fix that is not going to be backported to Ruby 3.1? It also seems to reference a system dependency called "gperf", so that's another lead for you to check (e.g. you could see which gperf version you have installed via your package manager).

So, although I'm not sure how to avoid this error, you have some options:

1. You could try to apply the commit above as a patch while installing Ruby 3.1 via --patch command-line option (note that the patch might not apply cleanly), or
2. You could upgrade your project to Ruby 3.2, which is a good idea since Ruby 3.1 is soon EOL.

[myaccountgitoube]

Hi,

This is just the tip of the iceberg because even some native extensions don't compile with gcc 15. For now, Fedora 42 is the only one that uses this version of gcc by default, that might be why there isn't much feedback.

• https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21290
• https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21293

Workaround for now : #2529 (reply in thread)

[erikastr]

As a temporary workaround, I have successfully compiled older Ruby versions on a Fedora 41 virtual machine

I believe the main culprit is the gcc version used in Fedora 42

$ ~ gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 15.1.1 20250425 (Red Hat 15.1.1-1)

Fedora 41

$ ~ gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 14.2.1 20240912 (Red Hat 14.2.1-3)

[myaccountgitoube]

@erikastr I tried to downgrade gcc 15.1.1 => 15.0.1-0.11 (available in Fedora 42), same error.

[myaccountgitoube]

@erikastr You're right, apparently, compiling native gem extensions and installing older Ruby versions (< 3.2.0) have issues with gcc 15.

I tried several solutions, including compiling an older version of Ruby in a Docker container with a mount to my rbenv root on the host machine. That worked well, but the next problem was when I needed to install a gem with native extensions – it would still crash (that was byebug) with gcc 15. So, ultimately, the solution is to install gcc 14 and use it to install ruby with rbenv.

It's quite simple on Fedora 42:

$ sudo dnf install gcc14-0:14.2.1-8.fc42.x86_64
$ CC=$(which gcc-14) rbenv install 3.1.3

Compiling native extensions with bundle will use gcc 14 🎉

[myaccountgitoube]

To reproduce error with a Dockerfile and Fedora 42:

FROM fedora:42

RUN dnf update -y

# All required dependencies
RUN dnf install -y autoconf gcc rust patch make bzip2 openssl-devel libyaml-devel libffi-devel readline-devel gdbm-devel ncurses-devel perl-FindBin zlib-ng-compat-devel cpan

RUN dnf install rbenv -y
RUN ./bin/rbenv init
RUN ./bin/rbenv install -v 2.5.9

$ docker build .
...
64.18 generating makefile exts.mk
64.20 exts.mk updated
64.20 external command failed with status 2
64.20 
64.20 BUILD FAILED (Fedora Linux 42 on x86_64 using ruby-build 20250418)
64.21 
64.21 You can inspect the build directory at /tmp/ruby-build.20250514002917.18.cJ6TP1

[myaccountgitoube]

To fix error:

FROM fedora:42

RUN dnf update -y

# All required dependencies
RUN dnf install -y autoconf gcc rust patch make bzip2 openssl-devel libyaml-devel libffi-devel readline-devel gdbm-devel ncurses-devel perl-FindBin zlib-ng-compat-devel cpan

RUN dnf install -y which gcc14-0:14.2.1-8.fc42.x86_64 # <<<<<<<  workaround

RUN dnf install -y rbenv
RUN ./bin/rbenv init
RUN CC=$(which gcc-14) /bin/rbenv install -v 2.5.9 # <<<<<<<  workaround

[mislav]

@erikastr @myaccountgitoube Thank you for sharing what worked for you! I've added the workaround as a note to our wiki: https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build/wiki#fedora-42-and-ruby-31

[myaccountgitoube]

resolved for me : #2529 (reply in thread)