People, I got rails talking to PostgreSQL 8.0 on my Mac! Once upon a time: I''m on a Mac. I want to use postqreSQL 8.0 to backend my rails. I tried a gem install... zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ gem install postgres ERROR: While executing gem ... (RuntimeError) ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. Gem files will remain installed in /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/postgres-0.7.1 for inspection. ruby extconf.rb install postgres\nchecking for cygwin32_socket() in -lwsock32... no checking for socket() in -lsocket... no checking for gethostbyname() in -linet... no checking for gethostbyname() in -lnsl... no checking for sys/un.h... yes checking for socket()... yes checking for hsterror()... no checking for gethostname()... yes checking for PQsetdbLogin() in -lpq... no Could not find PostgreSQL libraries: Makefile not created zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ obviously... I google... (after checking this list of course) I found: http://blog.humlab.umu.se/samuel/archives/000019.html ..... $CFLAGS = " -I/usr/include/openssl " $LDFLAGS = " -L/usr/lib -lssl -lcrypto " added above lines to extconf.rb and now a screen dump: zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ ruby extconf.rb --with-pgsql-include-dir=/opt/local/include/pgsql8 --with-pgsql-lib-dir=/opt/local/lib/pgsql8 checking for cygwin32_socket() in -lwsock32... no checking for socket() in -lsocket... no checking for gethostbyname() in -linet... no checking for gethostbyname() in -lnsl... no checking for sys/un.h... yes checking for socket()... yes checking for hsterror()... no checking for gethostname()... yes checking for BIO_free() in -lcrypto... yes checking for SSL_connect() in -lssl... yes Using PostgreSQL include directory: /opt/local/include/pgsql8 Using PostgreSQL lib directory: /opt/local/lib/pgsql8 checking for PQsetdbLogin() in -lpq... yes checking for libpq-fe.h... yes checking for libpq/libpq-fs.h... yes checking for PQsetClientEncoding()... yes checking for pg_encoding_to_char()... yes checking for PQescapeString()... yes checking for PQfreemem()... yes creating Makefile zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ export DESTDIR=/ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ make gcc -fno-common -I/usr/include/openssl -I/opt/local/include/pgsql8 -I. -I/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/powerpc-darwin7.9.0 -I/opt/local/lib/ruby/1.8/powerpc-darwin7.9.0 -I. -DHAVE_SYS_UN_H -DHAVE_SOCKET -DHAVE_GETHOSTNAME -DHAVE_LIBPQ_FE_H -DHAVE_LIBPQ_LIBPQ_FS_H -DHAVE_PQSETCLIENTENCODING -DHAVE_PG_ENCODING_TO_CHAR -DHAVE_PQESCAPESTRING -DHAVE_PQFREEMEM -O -pipe -I/opt/local/include -c postgres.c cc -dynamic -bundle -undefined suppress -flat_namespace -L/usr/lib -lssl -lcrypto -L/opt/local/lib/pgsql8 -L"//opt/local/lib" -o postgres.bundle postgres.o -lruby -lpq -lssl -lcrypto -lpthread -ldl -lobjc zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ make install install -c -p -m 0755 postgres.bundle //opt/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/powerpc-darwin7.9.0 zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ zmac11:/cd/rubythings/ruby-postgres oracle$ HTH -Dan