libxml2 missing when installing nokogiri's gem devkit (windows) - ruby-on-rails

Question

I've been experiencing a lot of problems with this gem, so I read that I had to use de 1.5.0-beta.
Since I'm using windows, I downloaded DevKit. But when I ran:
gem install nokogiri --pre -- --with-xml2-lib --with-xslt-lib
I get:
Temporarily enhancing PATH to include DevKit...
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR: Error installing nokogiri:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
C:/Ruby187/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb --with-xml2-lib --with-xslt-lib --pla
taform=ruby
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more
details. You may need configuration options.
Provided configuration options:
--with-opt-dir
--without-opt-dir
--with-opt-include
--without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
--with-opt-lib
--without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
--with-make-prog
--without-make-prog
--srcdir=.
--curdir
--ruby=C:/Ruby187/bin/ruby
--with-zlib-dir
--without-zlib-dir
--with-zlib-include
--without-zlib-include=${zlib-dir}/include
--with-zlib-lib
--without-zlib-lib=${zlib-dir}/lib
--with-iconv-dir
--without-iconv-dir
--with-iconv-include
--without-iconv-include=${iconv-dir}/include
--with-iconv-lib
--without-iconv-lib=${iconv-dir}/lib
--with-xml2-dir
--without-xml2-dir
--with-xml2-include
--without-xml2-include=${xml2-dir}/include
--with-xml2-lib=${xml2-dir}/lib
C:/Ruby187/lib/ruby/1.8/mkmf.rb:1177:in `dir_config': private method `split' cal
led for true:TrueClass (NoMethodError)
from extconf.rb:87
Gem files will remain installed in C:/Ruby187/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/nokogiri-1.
5.0.beta.4 for inspection.
Results logged to C:/Ruby187/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/nokogiri-1.5.0.beta.4/ext/no
kogiri/gem_make.out
What can I do?

Answer 1

With a command like
gem install nokogiri --pre -- --with-xml2-lib --with-xslt-lib
it looks like you're trying to install the very latest version of nokogiri. Try specifying a precise version with --version.
Also note the following requirements for nokogiri 1.6+
ruby 1.9.3 or higher
in Nokogiri 1.6.0 and later, libxml2 and libxslt are no longer requirements
So, if you do want to use ruby 1.8.7 (which is EOL, btw) then, yes, you do need to specify nokogiri < 1.6. However, if you can use a modern, living ruby, then you might dodge the lib dependencies.