docbrown/docs/installation/mac.md

title
macOS

Installing DEV on macOS

Installing prerequisites

Ruby

1. If you don't already have a Ruby version manager, we highly recommend rbenv. Please follow their installation guide.
2. With the Ruby version manager, install the Ruby version listed on our badge. (i.e. with rbenv: rbenv install 2.6.3)

Yarn

Please refer to their installation guide.

PostgreSQL

DEV requires PostgreSQL version 9.4 or higher. The easiest way to get started is to use Postgres.app. Alternatively, check out the official PostgreSQL site for more installation options.

For additional configuration options, check our PostgreSQL setup guide.

Installing DEV

1. Fork DEV's repository, e.g. https://github.com/thepracticaldev/dev.to/fork

2. Clone your forked repository, e.g. git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/dev.to.git

3. Install bundler with gem install bundler

4. Set up your environment variables/secrets

   • Take a look at Envfile. This file lists all the ENV variables we use and provides a fake default for any missing keys. You'll need to get your own free Algolia credentials to get your development environment running.

   • The backend guide will show you how to get free API keys for additional services that may be required to run certain parts of the app.

   • For any key that you wish to enter/replace:

     1. Create config/application.yml by copying from the provided template (i.e. with bash: cp config/sample_application.yml config/application.yml). This is a personal file that is ignored in git.
     2. Obtain the development variable and apply the key you wish to enter/replace. i.e.:

     GITHUB_KEY: "SOME_REAL_SECURE_KEY_HERE"
     GITHUB_SECRET: "ANOTHER_REAL_SECURE_KEY_HERE"
     

   • If you are missing ENV variables on bootup, the envied gem will alert you with messages similar to 'error_on_missing_variables!': The following environment variables should be set: A_MISSING_KEY..

   • You do not need "real" keys for basic development. Some features require certain keys, so you may be able to add them as you go.

5. Run bin/setup

Possible error messages

Error: __NSPlaceholderDate initialize] may have been in progress in another thread when fork() was called

Solution: Run the command export OBJC_DISABLE_INITIALIZE_FORK_SAFETY=YES (or set -x OBJC_DISABLE_INITIALIZE_FORK_SAFETY YES in fish shell)

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Error: User does not have CONNECT privilege.

Solution: Complete the steps outlined in the PostgreSQL setup guide.

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Error: rbenv: version '<version number>' is not installed (set by /Path/To/Local/Repository/.ruby-version)

Solution: Run the command rbenv install <version number>

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Error: ruby-build: definition not found: <version number> when rbenv was installed via brew.

ruby-build: definition not found: <version number>

See all available versions with `rbenv install --list`.
If the version you need is missing, try upgrading ruby-build:

Solution: Run the following to update ruby-build, brew update && brew upgrade ruby-build. After that, rerun rbenv install <version number> and that version will get installed.

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Error:

== Preparing database ==
    Sorry, you can't use byebug without Readline. To solve this, you need to
    rebuild Ruby with Readline support. If using Ubuntu, try `sudo apt-get
    install libreadline-dev` and then reinstall your Ruby.
rails aborted!
LoadError: dlopen(/Users/<username>/.rbenv/versions/2.6.3/lib/ruby/2.6.0/x86_64-darwin18/readline.bundle, 9): Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/readline/lib/libreadline.<some version number>.dylib

Solution: Run ln -s /usr/local/opt/readline/lib/libreadline.dylib /usr/local/opt/readline/lib/libreadline.<some version number>.dylib from the command line then run bin/setup again. You may have a different version or libreadline, so replace <some version number> with the version that errored.

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Error:

PG::Error: ERROR:  invalid value for parameter "TimeZone": "UTC"
: SET time zone 'UTC'

Solution: Restart your Postgres.app, or, if you installed PostgreSQL with Homebrew, restart with:

brew services restart postgresql

If that doesn't work, reboot your Mac.

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Error:

ERROR:  Error installing pg:
	ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
  [...]
Can't find the 'libpq-fe.h header
*** extconf.rb failed ***

Solution: You may encounter this when installing PostgreSQL with the Postgres.app. Try restarting the app and reinitializing the database. If that doesn't work, install PostgreSQL with Homebrew instead: brew install postgresql

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If you encountered any errors that you subsequently resolved, please consider updating this section with your errors and their solutions.