title: Trouble installing Rails mysql2 on Windows 7
body: <p>Things were going find and dandy, creating an app in Rails. Then I pulled an app my boss built, had to run the bundler, and now I'm out of business. Tried various things without success, now thinking I should re-install Rails. A problem with connecting to MySql seems to have developed from pulling my bosses app. Any help with the following error message would be appreciated.</p>
  
  <pre><code>Q:\source\ahistory&gt;gem install mysql2
  Temporarily enhancing PATH to include DevKit...
  Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
  ERROR:  Error installing mysql2:
          ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
  
      C:/Ruby21/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb
  checking for ruby/thread.h... yes
  checking for rb_thread_call_without_gvl() in ruby/thread.h... yes
  checking for rb_thread_blocking_region()... yes
  checking for rb_wait_for_single_fd()... yes
  checking for rb_hash_dup()... yes
  checking for rb_intern3()... 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... no
  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... no
  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=C:/Ruby21/bin/ruby
          --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-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
  
  extconf failed, exit code 1
  
  Gem files will remain installed in C:/Ruby21/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/mysql2-0.3
  .17 for inspection.
  Results logged to C:/Ruby21/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/extensions/x86-mingw32/2.1.0/mys
  ql2-0.3.17/gem_make.out
  </code></pre>