icu required on windows

[Porlockzzz]

How to install icu-lib on windows?

Here are the errors I reported when performing the installation

PS C:\Windows\system32> gem install github-linguist
Fetching mini_mime-1.1.5.gem
Fetching github-linguist-7.27.0.gem
Fetching rugged-1.7.1.gem
Fetching charlock_holmes-0.7.7.gem
Temporarily enhancing PATH for MSYS/MINGW...
Installing required msys2 packages: mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-libssh2 mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-cmake
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
Successfully installed rugged-1.7.1
Successfully installed mini_mime-1.1.5
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing github-linguist:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    current directory: C:/Ruby32-x64/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/charlock_holmes-0.7.7/ext/charlock_holmes
C:/Ruby32-x64/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb
checking for -licui18n... no


***************************************************************************************
*********** icu required (brew install icu4c or apt-get install libicu-dev) ***********
***************************************************************************************
*** 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:/Ruby32-x64/bin/$(RUBY_BASE_NAME)
        --with-icu-dir
        --without-icu-dir
        --with-icu-include
        --without-icu-include=${icu-dir}/include
        --with-icu-lib
        --without-icu-lib=${icu-dir}/lib
        --with-icu-i18n-dir
        --without-icu-i18n-dir
        --with-icu-i18n-include
        --without-icu-i18n-include=${icu-i18n-dir}/include
        --with-icu-i18n-lib
        --without-icu-i18n-lib=${icu-i18n-dir}/lib
        --with-icu-i18n-config
        --without-icu-i18n-config
        --with-pkg-config
        --without-pkg-config
        --with-icu-io-dir
        --without-icu-io-dir
        --with-icu-io-include
        --without-icu-io-include=${icu-io-dir}/include
        --with-icu-io-lib
        --without-icu-io-lib=${icu-io-dir}/lib
        --with-icu-io-config
        --without-icu-io-config
        --without-icu-uc-dir
        --with-icu-uc-include
        --without-icu-uc-include=${icu-uc-dir}/include
        --with-icu-uc-lib
        --without-icu-uc-lib=${icu-uc-dir}/lib
        --with-icu-uc-config
        --without-icu-uc-config
        --with-icui18n-dir
        --without-icui18n-dir
        --with-icui18n-include
        --without-icui18n-include=${icui18n-dir}/include
        --with-icui18n-lib
        --without-icui18n-lib=${icui18n-dir}/lib
        --with-icui18nlib
        --without-icui18nlib

To see why this extension failed to compile, please check the mkmf.log which can be found here:

  C:/Ruby32-x64/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/extensions/x64-mingw-ucrt/3.2.0/charlock_holmes-0.7.7/mkmf.log

extconf failed, exit code 1

Gem files will remain installed in C:/Ruby32-x64/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/gems/charlock_holmes-0.7.7 for inspection.
Results logged to C:/Ruby32-x64/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/extensions/x64-mingw-ucrt/3.2.0/charlock_holmes-0.7.7/gem_make.out

A new release of RubyGems is available: 3.4.10 → 3.4.20!
Run `gem update --system 3.4.20` to update your installation.

[lildude]

I don't have access to a Windows system and we don't actively encourage usage and development on Windows due to this lack of experience and exposure so can't really help you.

That said, this is really a dependency of the charlock_holmes gem so they're a better source for this question as you'll get the same error if you exclude Linguist entirely and run gem install charlock_holmes.

Have a look at the issues in their repo... you might find the answer there.

If you're looking to contribute to Linguist, then you can completely bypass these kind of Windows-specific issues by using Codespaces (some free monthly usage is included for all accounts) or a local devcontainer as detailed in the CONTRIBUTING.md file.