Just in case you would be in this situation (and given the fact I couldn't find online information about it), if you are ever installing the mysql2 gem on a Debian Wheezy system with MariaDB 10 (I would guess a rather rare situation), you might get this error:
# gem install mysql2 -v=0.3.11
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR: Error installing mysql2:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
/usr/bin/ruby1.9.1 extconf.rb
checking for rb_thread_blocking_region()... yes
checking for rb_wait_for_single_fd()... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lm... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lz... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lsocket... no
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lnsl... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lmygcc... no
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
*** 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=/usr/bin/ruby1.9.1
--with-mysql-config
--without-mysql-config
--with-mysql-dir
--without-mysql-dir
--with-mysql-include
--without-mysql-include=${mysql-dir}/include
--with-mysql-lib
--without-mysql-lib=${mysql-dir}/lib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
--with-mlib
--without-mlib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
--with-zlib
--without-zlib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
--with-socketlib
--without-socketlib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
--with-nsllib
--without-nsllib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
--with-mygcclib
--without-mygcclib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
Gem files will remain installed in /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/mysql2-0.3.11 for inspection.
Results logged to /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/mysql2-0.3.11/ext/mysql2/gem_make.out
If you find yourself in that situation, the solution is apparently to first issue an
apt-get install libmariadbd-devAnd then repeat the gem install mysql2 command. Done.
