Issue #21111 has been updated by katei (Yuta Saito). At first, it’s rare to have a situation where Ruby itself can be built but no C++ compiler is available. The macOS example mentioned in the ticket is an unusual case caused by broken Command Line Tools. Having said that, I agree that the current situation is not ideal. I did some research how other languages with native extension support handle situations where a C++ compiler is missing: - CPython: If no valid C++ compiler is found during the build, CPython guesses the compiler name from the value of CC and sets it as CXX. (e.g. when CC=gcc, then it defaults to CXX=g++) - PHP: If no valid C++ compiler is found, CXX is set to an empty string (CXX=""). CPython’s approach seems worth considering since it has the potential to recover more gracefully.
1. Should CXX just be set to nil? Or should all C++ extensions be expected to check for false? The latter seems surprising to me.
The current approach of setting CXX=false may seem tricky but actually makes some sense. This allows extensions to check the compiler’s sanity without inspecting CXX directly, e.g., using something like `MakeMakefile["C++"].try_compile ""`.
2. Should there be a way to fail the Ruby build if a valid C++ compiler is not found?
IMO forcing the Ruby build to fail when no C++ compiler is found isn’t ideal since Ruby itself doesn’t depend on C++ at all. ---------------------------------------- Bug #21111: RbConfig::CONFIG['CXX'] quietly set to "false" when Ruby cannot build C++ programs https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21111#change-111882 * Author: stanhu (Stan Hu) * Status: Open * ruby -v: ruby 3.4.1 (2024-12-25 revision 48d4efcb85) +YJIT +PRISM [arm64-darwin24] * Backport: 3.1: UNKNOWN, 3.2: UNKNOWN, 3.3: UNKNOWN, 3.4: UNKNOWN ---------------------------------------- As reported in https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/-/issues/2222 and https://trac.macports.org/ticket/70750, we've had numerous macOS users experience problems with compiling Ruby C++ extensions after upgrading to XCode 16. Users have had to fix their XCode setups and reinstall Ruby when this happens. It turns out that when Ruby can't build a CXX program, it essentially sets CXX to the `false` string. From https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/7317f96727725ca37ddb06011918deb841de371c/c...: ``` AS_IF([test -n "${rb_there_is_in_fact_no_gplusplus_but_autoconf_is_cheating_us}"], [ AC_MSG_NOTICE([Test skipped due to lack of a C++ compiler.]) ], [test -n "${CXX}"], [ RUBY_WERROR_FLAG([ AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether CXXFLAGS is valid]) AC_LANG_PUSH(C++) AC_COMPILE_IFELSE([AC_LANG_PROGRAM([[@%:@include <cstdio>]], [[]])], [AC_MSG_RESULT(yes)],[ AC_MSG_RESULT(no) # The message mentions CXXFLAGS, but CPPFLAGS might also affects. AC_MSG_WARN([something wrong with CXXFLAGS="$CXXFLAGS"]) CXX=false ``` This causes C++ extensions, such as `unf_ext`, to fail while attempting to compile native extensions. There are no error messages because `false` is executed, so users only see: ``` Installing unf_ext 0.0.8.2 with native extensions Gem::Ext::BuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. current directory: /Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-3.3.7/gems/unf_ext-0.0.8.2/ext/unf_ext /Users/kerrizor/.rvm/rubies/ruby-3.3.7/bin/ruby extconf.rb checking for -lstdc++... yes creating Makefile current directory: /Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-3.3.7/gems/unf_ext-0.0.8.2/ext/unf_ext make DESTDIR\= sitearchdir\=./.gem.20250203-69237-u2oi17 sitelibdir\=./.gem.20250203-69237-u2oi17 clean current directory: /Users/myuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-3.3.7/gems/unf_ext-0.0.8.2/ext/unf_ext make DESTDIR\= sitearchdir\=./.gem.20250203-69237-u2oi17 sitelibdir\=./.gem.20250203-69237-u2oi17 compiling unf.cc make: *** [unf.o] Error 1 ``` `unf_ext` only checks whether `RbConfig::CONFIG['CXX']` is defined, not that it is `false`: https://github.com/knu/ruby-unf_ext/blob/c72a36d0a5ea9fe3950611b0f289fc68a25.... Questions: 1. Should CXX just be set to `nil`? Or should all C++ extensions be expected to check for `false`? The latter seems surprising to me. 2. Should there be a way to fail the Ruby build if a valid C++ compiler is not found? -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/