The problem:  Installing ffi-1.1.0 on my Mac (system details below) produces

output including this error message:

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$ gem install ffi

Building native extensions.  This could take a while...

ERROR:  Error installing ffi:

        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

        /Users/clarke/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/bin/ruby extconf.rb

checking for ffi_call() in -lffi... yes

checking for ffi_prep_closure()... yes

checking for ffi_raw_call()... yes

checking for ffi_prep_raw_closure()... yes

checking for rb_thread_blocking_region()... yes

checking for ruby_native_thread_p()... yes

checking for rb_thread_call_with_gvl()... yes

creating extconf.h

creating Makefile

make

[...]

compiling MethodHandle.c

MethodHandle.c:204: error: expected declaration specifiers or '...' before string constant

[...]

make: *** [MethodHandle.o] Error 1

Gem files will remain installed in /Users/clarke/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/ffi-1.1.0 for inspection.

Results logged to /Users/clarke/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194/gems/ffi-1.1.0/ext/ffi_c/gem_make.out

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Essentially the same error appeared with ffi-1.0.11. Given the line number,

it seems that the asm() insert is being rejected.

My system:

Mac OX X 10.7.4 (Lion)

Xcode 4.3.3

gcc: i686-apple-darwin11-llvm-gcc-4.2 (GCC) 4.2.1

---------

Here are two changes, either one of which seems to allow make to run in the ext directory.

Both changes affect this line in ext/Makefile:

CFLAGS   = -fno-common -std=c99 -pedantic -Wall -fno-common -pipe -I/opt/local/lib/libffi-3.0.11/include   $(ARCH_FLAG)

First fix: remove -std=c99

or

Second fix: replace -std=c99 with -std=gnu99

Since I don't do much C programming on the Mac (and have never used asm in a

C program), and since I'm totally new to Ruby, I offer these fixes more as guesses

than as firm suggestions. However, Googling turned up one or two unresolved

queries about the same problem, so maybe I'm not alone?

I'd be a little unhappy to try becoming my own ffi expert. Any chance of a

more authoritative fix?