How to running CocoaPods on Apple Silicon (M1)

macos ios flutter apple-silicon cocoapods

I have a Flutter project that I'm trying to run on iOS. It runs normally on my Intel-based Mac, but on my new Apple Silicon-based M1 Mac it fails to install pods.

LoadError - dlsym(0x7f8926035eb0, Init_ffi_c): symbol not found - /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/ffi-1.13.1/lib/ffi_c.bundle
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/ffi-1.13.1/lib/ffi.rb:6:in `rescue in <top (required)>'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/ffi-1.13.1/lib/ffi.rb:3:in `<top (required)>'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/ethon-0.12.0/lib/ethon.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/typhoeus-1.4.0/lib/typhoeus.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:54:in `require'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/sources_manager.rb:74:in `cdn_url?'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/sources_manager.rb:36:in `create_source_with_url'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/sources_manager.rb:21:in `find_or_create_source_with_url'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/installer/analyzer.rb:178:in `block in sources'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/installer/analyzer.rb:177:in `map'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/installer/analyzer.rb:177:in `sources'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/installer/analyzer.rb:1073:in `block in resolve_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/user_interface.rb:64:in `section'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/installer/analyzer.rb:1072:in `resolve_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/installer/analyzer.rb:124:in `analyze'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:414:in `analyze'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:239:in `block in resolve_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/user_interface.rb:64:in `section'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:238:in `resolve_dependencies'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/installer.rb:160:in `install!'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/command/install.rb:52:in `run'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/claide-1.0.3/lib/claide/command.rb:334:in `run'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/lib/cocoapods/command.rb:52:in `run'
/Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems/cocoapods-1.10.0/bin/pod:55:in `<top (required)>'
/usr/local/bin/pod:23:in `load'
/usr/local/bin/pod:23:in `<main>'

Based on a Github workaround, I tried to run Terminal using rosetta, but the issue remains the same: https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods/issues/9907#issuecomment-655870749

Realising it's still early for Macs with Apple Silicon. Is there a way to make this work for the time being?


Still working in January 2022

#1 Install ffi

sudo arch -x86_64 gem install ffi

#2 Re-install dependencies

arch -x86_64 pod install

Additional Information

#1 For anyone seeing the arch: posix_spawnp: gem: Bad CPU type in executable error, you must first install Rosetta. Thanks, @Jack Dewhurst

#2 If you run pod commands pretty often, setting up an alias in .zshrc or .bash_profile might be handy. Thanks, @theMoonlitKnight for the suggestion.

alias pod='arch -x86_64 pod'

EDIT: I recently disabled Rosetta, and Cocoapods runs just fine with the addition of the ffi gem.

For anyone else struggling with this issue, I just found a way to solve it. In addition to running terminal in Rosetta:

  1. Right-click on Terminal in Finder
  2. Get Info
  3. Open with Rosetta

I installed a gem that seems to be related to the symbol not found in the error:

sudo gem install ffi

After doing this, cocoapods runs as expected.


TL;DR:

  • Install your own version of Ruby with Homebrew / rbenv / RVM (e.g. brew install ruby)
  • Add it and the gems binaries to your PATH and make sure the new version is used with which ruby (should be /opt/homebrew/opt/ruby/bin/ruby instead of /usr/bin/ruby if installed with Homebrew)
  • Install CocoaPods with sudo gem install cocoapods (make sure ethon is at least version 0.13.0)
  • Run pod install

Detailed answer:

All answers suggesting using Rosetta / arch -x86_64 are workarounds and not quite solving the real issue that comes from the way RbConfig and the universal binaries work.

require 'rbconfig'

OSVERSION = RbConfig::CONFIG['host_os']
ARCH = RbConfig::CONFIG['arch']
HOSTCPU = RbConfig::CONFIG['host_cpu']
BUILDCPU = RbConfig::CONFIG['build_cpu']
TARGETCPU = RbConfig::CONFIG['target_cpu']

puts "OS: #{OSVERSION}"
puts "Arch: #{ARCH}"
puts "Host CPU: #{HOSTCPU}"
puts "Build CPU: #{BUILDCPU}"
puts "Target CPU: #{TARGETCPU}"

If you call ruby on a file containing this code with the universal binary shipped with macOS, you will get the following result on an M1 Mac:

OS: darwin20
Arch: universal-darwin20
Host CPU: x86_64
Build CPU: x86_64
Target CPU: universal

As you can see, RbConfig was compiled for a « universal » CPU but built with an x86 CPU, and the rbconfig.rb file that was generated (see /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/universal-darwin20/rbconfig.rb) consequently uses invalid information for the host CPU.

As ffi uses information from RbConfig (see https://github.com/ffi/ffi/blob/dfae59e293974efaa7b4d414e5116d7a2187a06e/lib/ffi/platform.rb#L61 and https://github.com/ffi/ffi/blob/e3f2cf9b82055709ddbeecbf77810f43438c4b64/spec/ffi/fixtures/compile.rb#L11), we end up with OP’s error message.

The solution is, therefore, to get a version of Ruby built specifically for arm64 by using either Homebrew, rbenv or RVM.

For Homebrew:

  • Execute brew install ruby
  • Add export PATH=/opt/homebrew/opt/ruby/bin:/opt/homebrew/lib/ruby/gems/3.0.0/bin:$PATH to your .zshrc (you can find your Homebrew installation directory with $(brew --prefix) if needed)
  • Execute source ~/.zshrc or restart your shell
  • Make sure you are using the correct ruby binary by executing which ruby (should be $(brew --prefix)/opt/ruby/bin/ruby)
  • Install CocoaPods with sudo gem install cocoapods
  • Make sure you are using the correct pod binary by executing which pod (should be $(brew --prefix)/lib/ruby/gems/3.0.0/bin/pod)
  • Make sure ethon is version 0.13.0 or more with gem info ethon, otherwise run sudo gem install ethon
  • Run pod install

Ruby won't come with future macOS versions by default

Moreover, it should be noted that ruby is still included in macOS only « for compatibility with legacy software », as evidenced by running irb -v, so this is probably a good opportunity to install your own version anyway:

WARNING: This version of ruby is included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. In future versions of macOS the ruby runtime will not be available by default and may require you to install an additional package.

irb 1.0.0 (2018-12-18)

Sources:

  • https://betterprogramming.pub/ruby-on-apple-silicon-m1-macs-fb159849b2f5
  • https://github.com/ffi/ffi/issues/870

To install completely cocoapods on Mac with M1 chip (Apple Silicon), please follow these steps:

  1. Duplicate the Terminal application in the Utilities folder.
  2. Right-click on the app and choose to Get Info.
  3. Rename the other version of the app as you like.
  4. Check the option "open with Rosetta".
  5. Install Cocoapods with the command "sudo gem install cocoapods"
  6. Type the command line "gem install ffi" to fix the ffi bundle problem. Now you can do a "pod install" without a problem.

Source : iPhoneSoft


An alternative to running Terminal in Rosetta 2 is to set the architecture with arch -x86_64, as in the following:

arch -x86_64 sudo gem install cocoapods -n /usr/local/bin

To give credit where it is due, I found this solution here

MacPorts bug tracker, issue #61545, comment 7

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