Failed to install nokogiri and webrat on Mac OS X - ruby-on-rails

Question

I was trying to install webrat on my Mac, but I've got the error, that the iconv.h is missing. Here is the log:
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR: Error installing webrat:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb
checking for iconv.h in /opt/local/include/,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include,/opt/local/include/libxml2,/usr/local/include,/usr/local/include/libxml2,/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/include,/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/include/libxml2,/usr/include,/usr/include/libxml2... no
iconv is missing. try 'port install iconv' or 'yum install iconv'
*** 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=/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby
--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=${xml2-dir}/include
--with-xml2-lib
--without-xml2-lib=${xml2-dir}/lib
--with-xslt-dir
--without-xslt-dir
--with-xslt-include
--without-xslt-include=${xslt-dir}/include
--with-xslt-lib
--without-xslt-lib=${xslt-dir}/lib
Gem files will remain installed in /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/nokogiri-1.4.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/nokogiri-1.4.1/ext/nokogiri/gem_make.out
The weird thing is, that the iconv.h is already in the /opt/local/include/ directory.
Can anyone recommend a solution?
thx,
tux

Answer 1

Ok, I solved it on my own.
After a couple of days on research and trying I figured out, that my installation of g++ and gcc was broken. I've installed an update of g++ through macports, and in the .profile file of my current user there was a value in the PATH var from macports. I removed it, and now it works.
The PATH var should look like this:
export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH

Answer 2

More help on Nokogiri website, using macports or homebrew for Mac OS X install:
http://nokogiri.org/tutorials/installing_nokogiri.html
For iconv related problems, please refer to this issue on github:
https://github.com/tenderlove/nokogiri/issues/381