How to avoid cannot load such file -- utils popen from homebrew on OSX

Question

I m getting an error when I run  brew in the terminal     System Library Frameworks Ruby framework Versions 2 0 usr lib ruby 2 0 0 rubygems core ext kernel require rb 55 in  require   cannot load such file -- utils popen  LoadError  from  System Library Frameworks Ruby framework Versions 2 0 usr lib ruby 2 0 0 rubygems core ext kernel require rb 55 in  require  from  usr local Library Homebrew utils rb 6 in   lt top  required  gt   from  System Library Frameworks Ruby framework Versions 2 0 usr lib ruby 2 0 0 rubygems core ext kernel require rb 55 in  require  from  System Library Frameworks Ruby framework Versions 2 0 usr lib ruby 2 0 0 rubygems core ext kernel require rb 55 in  require  from  usr local Library Homebrew global rb 9 in   lt top  required  gt   from  System Library Frameworks Ruby framework Versions 2 0 usr lib ruby 2 0 0 rubygems core ext kernel require rb 55 in  require  from  System Library Frameworks Ruby framework Versions 2 0 usr lib ruby 2 0 0 rubygems core ext kernel require rb 55 in  require  from  usr local Library brew rb 16 in   lt main gt     These are my gem settings   - RUBYGEMS VERSION  2 0 14 - RUBY VERSION  2 0 0  2014-02-24 patchlevel 451   universal x86 64-darwin13  - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY   Library Ruby Gems 2 0 0 - RUBY EXECUTABLE   System Library Frameworks Ruby framework Versions 2 0 usr bin ruby - EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY   usr bin - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS    - ruby   - universal-darwin-13 - GEM PATHS    -  Library Ruby Gems 2 0 0   -  Users ronaldkwan  gem ruby 2 0 0   -  System Library Frameworks Ruby framework Versions 2 0 usr lib ruby gems 2 0 0 - GEM CONFIGURATION    -  update sources   gt  true   -  verbose   gt  true   -  backtrace   gt  false   -  bulk threshold   gt  1000

User · Answer

First  open a terminal session and run   cd  usr local  git status   to see if Homebrew is clean   If it s dirty  run   git reset --hard  amp  amp  git clean -df   then  brew doctor brew update   If it s still broken  try this in your session   sudo rm  System Library Frameworks Ruby framework Versions Current sudo ln -s  System Library Frameworks Ruby framework Versions 1 8  System Library Frameworks Ruby framework Versions Current   This will force Homebrew to use Ruby 1 8 from the system s installation

User · Answer

The problem mainly occurs after updating OS X to El Capitan  OS X 10 11  or macOS Sierra  macOS 10 12    This is because of file permission issues with El Capitan   s or later macOS s new SIP process  Try changing the permissions for the  usr local directory     sudo chown -R   whoami  admin  usr local     If it still doesn t work  use these steps inside a terminal session and everything will be fine   cd  usr local Library Homebrew   git reset --hard   git clean -df brew update   This may be because homebrew is not updated

User · Answer

After updating to El Capitan   usr local has root wheel rights   Change the rights back to the user using   sudo chown -R   whoami  admin  usr local   and   brew doctor  amp  amp  brew update   This helped me to get Homebrew working again

User · Answer

Uninstall homebrew    ruby -e    curl -fsSL https   raw githubusercontent com Homebrew install master uninstall     Then reinstall  ruby -e    curl -fsSL https   raw githubusercontent com Homebrew install master install     Warning  This script will remove   Library Caches Homebrew  - thks benjaminsila

User · Answer

In my case I just needed to remove Homebrew s executable using   sudo rm -f  which brew    Then reinstall Homebrew   ruby -e    curl -fsSL https   raw githubusercontent com Homebrew install master install

User · Answer

To restore your Homebrew setup try this   cd  usr local Homebrew Library  amp  amp  git stash  amp  amp  git clean -d -f  amp  amp  git reset --hard  amp  amp  git pull

User · Answer

First I executed   sudo chown -R   whoami  admin  usr local   Then   cd   brew --prefix   amp  amp  git fetch origin  amp  amp  git reset --hard origin master

User · Answer

To me it feels like you have missing header files for popen  which is a C system library   Check if you have installed xcode successful with the command line tools and have accepted the license   See this thread for more information  How to install Xcode Command Line Tools

User · Answer

This issue should be fixed in the newest version of Homebrew  Try reinstalling it  which is described on the Homebrew home page

[ruby] How to avoid "cannot load such file -- utils/popen" from homebrew on OSX

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