git formula not installing (libiconv error?)

[sarahhodne]

I just tried running brew upgrade to upgrade my formulae, and it crashed on installing git. I've tried installing it separately, but that gives me the exact same error message, which you can see in the gist I just posted.

It seems like there's some error with libiconv, but I can't figure out what. Running brew install libiconv doesn't seem to do anything at all (the command generates no output).

Oh, and here's my brew doctor output:

Some "config" scripts were found in your path, but not in system or Homebrew folders.

`./configure` scripts often look for *-config scripts to determine if software packages
are installed, and what additional flags to use when compiling and linking.

Having additional scripts in your path can confuse software installed via Homebrew if
the config script overrides a system or Homebrew provided script of the same name.

/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin
    gpg-error-config ksba-config libassuan-config libgcrypt-config libusb-config pth-config

[jacknagel]

It looks like the git build system is picking up a libiconv that doesn't have 64-bit symbols.

It could be due to the MacGPG stuff, that is known to cause problems.

[mistydemeo]

Do you see anything if you do brew list --unbrewed | egrep iconv?

[sarahhodne]

@mistydemeo Big surprise, there's some MacGPG stuff there: https://gist.github.com/1468849

[jacknagel]

Yeah, you'll have to remove, or at least temporarily move, the iconv stuff.

[sarahhodne]

Hmm, I do use MacGPG though. I'll try and figure it out.

[sarahhodne]

I moved the MacGPG stuff into my home folder, but I still get the same error.

[jacknagel]

What do you see if you do find / -name libiconv* 2>/dev/null?

[camillol]

Try brew install git --interactive; when you get the shell prompt, do gcc -Wl,-t -liconv | grep iconv. That should tell you where it is finding libiconv.

[sarahhodne]

Looks like it uses /usr/lib/libiconv.dylib.

› gcc -Wl,-t -liconv | grep iconv
/usr/lib/libiconv.dylib
Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64:
  "_main", referenced from:
      start in crt1.10.6.o
ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture x86_64
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

[camillol]

That one is fine. The problem is probably some library that you have already installed in homebrew that is linked to MacGPG's libiconv.

[sarahhodne]

@jacknagel This is what I see. Had to rework the command a bit to remove /Volumes, which scanned all of my backups. Took forever to run...

[sarahhodne]

Hmm, when looking at the /usr/lib/libiconv.dylib symbols (with nm), it seems like the symbol there is called _iconv_open, and git tries to use _libiconv_open. Not sure if this is relevant, but it seems like it.

[sarahhodne]

And, it seems like the version installed in /usr/local/Cellar/libiconv uses _libiconv_open. This might be it.

[sarahhodne]

Yes, that was it. I uninstalled the homebrew version of libiconv (rm -rf /usr/local/Cellar/libiconv && ls -l /usr/local/lib | grep iconv | awk '{ print "/usr/local/lib/"$9 }' | xargs rm), and it worked!

[jacknagel]

Yes, the Hombrew version can interfere with things, which is why it is not normally linked into the prefix; instead of uninstalling you could brew unlink libiconv. Note that removing it may break installed software.

[sarahhodne]

brew unlink libiconv kept saying there were multiple installed versions of libiconv. I did take a backup, just in case. Also, I tried unlinking manually (ls -l /usr/local/lib | grep iconv | awk '{ print "/usr/local/lib/"$9 }' | xargs rm), but installing git didn't work until I removed the files in /usr/local/Cellar/libiconv.

From what I could gather, this happened because ./configure was ran and decided to use Homebrew's version, but the formula then removes CCFLAGS, LDFLAGS, and the like, but doesn't reset what symbol names to use (I think it changed between versions), and therefore there was a conflict when actually linking.

[flashus]

brew unlink libiconv solved issue for me. Thanks @jacknagel!

[liamcurry]

brew unlink libiconv also solved the issues I was having. Thank you @jacknagel.

[dmuth]

Since I spent about an hour (and many Google searches) trying to get to the bottom of this, I wanted to add my experience in the hopes that this may help someone else down the road.

I'm on an iMac running OS/X 10.6. Prior to installing Brew, I had both MacPorts and Fink, which may have unintentionally left cruft laying around, even though I'm sure I got it all.

The fix for me ended up being:
brew install libiconv
brew link libiconv

The second step was very important, because I don't believe that those files were linked by default.

Anyway, once I installed libiconv via Brew, Git compiled with no complaints whatsoever!

Hope this helps!