How to Fix no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH on Mac OS X Lion

Posted on May 16th, 2012 phpguru 22 comments

If you have a need to compile Memcache or wget on Mac OS X Lion and are wondering why you are getting the error
```
no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
```
on Mac OS X Lion, you’re not alone.

Thanks to this post, I was able to fix my problem. Here are the steps.
1. Run App Store
2. Search for Xcode – it’s a free install from Apple
3. Wait for awhile. Took 30min to download for me on a 20mbps connection
4. Authenticate and let Xcode install. Once Xcode is installed you may be thinking you’re done. You would be wrong!
5. Launch Xcode and run the mobile toolkit update (you can’t skip it, deal with it)
6. Go to Xcode Preferences or press ⌘, (Command-comma)
7. Click the Downloads tab -> Components list as shown below
8. On the last row of the available downloads are the Command Line tools. Install them.
You should be good to go after that!

Software, Website Development Apple, Mac OS X
22 responses to “How to Fix no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH on Mac OS X Lion”
- Andrew June 28th, 2012 at 23:56
  
  Thanks, that was spot on. I had thought I was done!
- John July 19th, 2012 at 09:37
  
  Very helpful! A pain to install, but did the trick. Thanks!
- lms August 4th, 2012 at 16:45
  
  Thanks for the tip
- Teddy K. Nielsen August 17th, 2012 at 08:09
  
  Thanks phpguru! Problem solved.
- Mark Cowan August 18th, 2012 at 23:37
  
  Thanks a heap. JewelryBox would not let me install any Ruby versions. Using the terminal was giving me errors e.g. “For Ruby 1.9.3: Install libksba”. But your soluton to install Command Line Tools via xCode did the trick.
- Hans August 23rd, 2012 at 23:59
  
  Thanks! Exactly what I needed. I was going through a lot of threads just to read over and over again I had to install x code. This was the only resource showing the extra needed steps for lion.
- Jan August 28th, 2012 at 06:58
  
  Thanks, good tutorial!!!
- Tone September 3rd, 2012 at 04:53
  
  Thanks! Been scouring the internet for this info, you saved me a lot of time.
- Michael October 8th, 2012 at 15:54
  
  Thanks a ton. Who would have thought that x-code would ship without command line tools? iOS simulators not shipping with, I get. But command line tools?!
- Ye October 12th, 2012 at 14:01
  
  30 min searching on the web. This is the only one solving the problem. Thanks a lot!!
- FirstTimeMacUser October 13th, 2012 at 15:23
  
  GREAT!!! Thanks for your help!
- chrisma October 18th, 2012 at 08:31
  
  thanks alot! it’s very usefull!
- Alon October 25th, 2012 at 01:25
  
  This did the trick, thanks!
- Nuwan November 21st, 2012 at 19:33
  
  Thank you very much…!!!
- Naveko November 24th, 2012 at 02:17
  
  Works for Mountain Lion, too! Thanks for the useful post!
- Kris Tuttle January 3rd, 2013 at 11:19
  
  Thanks much for posting this. Why doesn’t Apple make it easier to enable the development stuff you need. Seems like we shouldn’t have t search the internet to add a simple extension to the OS!
- Matt January 3rd, 2013 at 20:42
  
  Nice. Worked with Mountain Lion. I was having problems installing ruby 1.9.3 using rvm and couldn’t install the gem bcrypt-ruby.
  
  Your steps solved the problem. Thanks. Adding the install error hoping that other rubyists that encounter the problem will google your suggestion.
  
  Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
  
  /usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p194/bin/ruby extconf.rb
  creating Makefile
  
  make
  sh: make: command not found
  
  Gem files will remain installed in /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@rails-3.2.9/gems/bcrypt-ruby-3.0.1 for inspection.
  Results logged to /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p194@rails-3.2.9/gems/bcrypt-ruby-3.0.1/ext/mri/gem_make.out
- Ciro80 January 10th, 2013 at 14:05
  
  Hi guys,
  can anybody help me to “install mobile toolkit update”? I can’t find anything in Xcode with such a name…
  Sorry for this basic question..
  Tnx
- samuel January 16th, 2013 at 13:12
  
  thx dude for your tutorial.
  this is a direct link to download the latest version of command line tools
- Beth February 22nd, 2013 at 20:55
  
  And still working like a charm – thanks for the fix!!
- Chaz March 2nd, 2013 at 14:22
  
  Kudos to Matt for posting his response… That was EXACTLY the scenario I was stuck in!
- Ali May 20th, 2013 at 12:19
  
  You are my rescuer. Thanks alot
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