Fixing sqlite3 on Windows for Rails

• 2018/08/25

Environment

• Ruby 2.5.1
• Ruby on Rails 5.1

What I tried

Running gem install sqlite3 complained that sqlite3 was missing. Uninstalling the gem:

gem uninstall sqlite3
Successfully uninstalled sqlite3-1.3.13-x64-mingw32

and reinstalling via gem install sqlite3 --platform=ruby still failed.

Solution

It turned out to be a bad combination of versions and sqlite3_native.so.

1. Uninstall the gem again:

gem uninstall sqlite3

2. Download the ZIPs from the SQLite download page: sqlite-dll-win32-x86-XXXXXXX.zip and sqlite-amalgamation-XXXXXXX.zip. Unzip the amalgamation package somewhere convenient (we will compile it later).
3. Extract sqlite3.dll and place it in a directory that is on your PATH (where ruby.exe lives).
4. Run:

gem install sqlite3 -v "=1.3.7" --platform=ruby -- --with-sqlite3-include=C:\temp\sqlite-amalgamation-3240000 --with-sqlite3-lib=C:\Ruby25-x64\bin

(Adjust the paths if you extracted the sources elsewhere.)

Notes

• You need the DevKit (a C compiler) to build the native extension.
• The issue apparently does not happen on Ruby 2.4.
• Watch out for proxies. If needed, create ~/.gemrc and set http_proxy: http://proxyserver:port.