💉 How To Install The RMagick 💉 #RubyOnRails Gem on Windows 7/8/10 (ImageMagick 6.9.6 Q16-HDRI)
Step-by-Step guide on installing the RMAGICK gem on Windows 7/8/10…
⚠️ The rmagick gem will NOT install on Windows unless you have ImageMagick installed…⚠️
ImageMagick is an image manipulation library (Photoshop without a GUI).
Whilst installing is a relatively simple process, there are several important facets to making it work correctly (version 7 doesn’t work).
The main reason you need to know this is because without a correctly installed version of ImageMagick, you’ll receive the “ERROR: Failed To Build Native Extension” error:
It is caused by Windows’ inability to reference ImageMagick ‘C’ header files.
C Header files are used by all programs to enabled a number of different features. Linux systems also need these references, but can be installed by apt-get. With Windows, you have to download them independently…
1️⃣ Download & Install ImageMagick 6.9.x (free)
➡️ Download from **THIS URL (6.9.6)** (needs to be DLL version) ⬅️
You should NOT download the latest version of ImageMagick (7.x) because it doesn’t work with RMagick. We’ve tried it. The only versions which currently work are 6.9.x. To download them, you need to use this hosted repository:
We currently use ImageMagick 6.9.6 Q16-HDRI DLL (64bit):
When downloading the version you want, you need to look for several things…
- You NEED To download the DLL version. This gives you access to the C headers which RMagick needs to compile (see below).
- You need to make sure you are downloading the appropriate version for your system. Many versions of Windows are 64-bit. Whilst this means nothing to most, it basically gives the system access to more memory addresses.
- When installing software, using the 64 bit version gives it access to these memory addresses, speeding up the system. If you don’t know, or don’t care, just use the X86 (32-bit) version. If you want maximum performance, download the 64 bit version.
You can see how to check your version of Windows here:
Once you’ve found the version you wish to download, you need to click on the EXE variant:
2️⃣ Install
Once you have downloaded ImageMagick, install it to a path without spaces. You also need to make sure you check the following options:
This will install an actual piece of software on your system:
You can check to see if your installation was successful by using the
convert -version command in CMD:
This will verify ImageMagick is installed (can be referenced by RMagick).
If this passes, it means you should then try and install the RMagick gem, referencing the new ImageMagick install files you’ve just put on your computer.
3️⃣ RMagick (Gem)
Next, install the RMagick gem with reference to the installation path of ImageMagick:
gem install rmagick --platform=ruby -- --with-opt-lib="c:/path_to_image_magick/lib" --with-opt-include="c:/path_to_image_magick/include"
You need to make sure you reference the paths with forward-slashes otherwise it won’t work.
This will take some time but should work if you have the correct version of ImageMagick installed (7.x doesn’t work). Once this has been installed, it should work in your apps.
📆 UPDATE 2018 (RMAGICK2.so Error)
If you’re using RubyInstaller2 on Windows, the ONLY way to get RMagick working on this version is to copy the core Imagemagick DLL files to your Ruby/bin folder:
To do this, you need to click into the ImageMagick base directory and copy the above files to your Ruby/bin folder:
📆 UPDATE 2 (2018) — Paperclip Spoof Error
Another problem you’ll face is a lack of file command.
This will prevent Paperclip from being able to check the file type of uploads:
In unix , you need to set command_path in the environment files of Rails:
In Windows , you need to copy a version of fileto a PATH directory. This would normally have been handled by devkit but as RubyInstaller2 uses msys2 , you may need to do it manually.
There are TWO ways:
1️⃣ (IF NOT USING MSYS2)
Download a copy of file and put it on your HDD (easiest):
Save BOTH files to your HDD, then unzip them into the SAME folder
(one contains two dll file dependencies):
Once the folder has the required files, add the bin directory to your PATH:
- Press “Windows” + “R” keys on your keyboard
- In the “Run” dialogue, type sysdm.cpl and press “OK”:
- This will load the “System” dialogue
- Click “Advanced” → “Environment Variables”:
- This will load the “Environment Variables” dialogue (which differs between Windows 7 & Windows 10):
Ensure you add the full path to your file directory, specifically pointing to the /bin dir. This will allow Windows to load up the file.exe application when using cmd.
—
After this, load a fresh instance of cmd test thefile command —
it should show the following:
This should fix the spoofing error with Paperclip & Rails on Windows.
2️⃣ (IF USING MSYS2)
Run rails with the ridk exec command (uses msys2):
ridk exec pacman -S file
This will ensure the file package is installed with msys2 .
From here, you’ll need to reference it when running Rails:
ridk exec rails s -b lvh.me -p 4200
This will allow you to run Paperclip without any issues:
Obviously, referencing ridk exec every time you run rails is a pain.
If you’d prefer to set and forget, you should just download file and put it in the PATH var on your system. This way, cmd will have access to it all the time.
☎️ Further Support ☎️
If you need further support, please feel free to contact us → we’re in the UK so please consider the ⌚ difference!
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