cocoaPods pod install Permission denied

Question

This is the short version:

When I run

pod install

in an Xcode project I get

[!] Pod::Executable pull error: cannot open .git/FETCH_HEAD: Permission denied

If I run

sudo pod install

I get no error, but my files installed are owned by root and can't compile and I have to chown those files to a normal user to use the Xcode compiler.

I am running Lion OSX.

I installed cocoaPods using

sudo gem install cocoaPods

I had to use sudo because without it I got

ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError)

You don't have write permissions into the /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8 directory.

so now I have a root installed version of cocoaPods that downloads root owned Xcode libraries.

Is sudo installation of cocoaPods the wrong way or normal way?

If normal, is there a way to fix the pod install problem?

The iOSDev · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-26 09:44:17Z

117

I solved this problem by running the following command:

sudo chown -R $USER ~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods

and

sudo chown -R $USER ~/.cocoapods

Please replace username and groupname with your Mac login username/groupname.

edited Sep 26, 2019 at 9:44

The iOSDev

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answered Jul 9, 2013 at 7:52

jianpx

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10 Comments

lehn0058 Over a year ago

Note, you need to have the username you are transferring ownership to between the -R and ~filename

jianpx Over a year ago

to @lehn0058, I am sorry to missing the username parameter in a hurry.

Peter Boné Over a year ago

As a side note, the incident occurred because i ran 'sudo pod setup' instead of 'pod setup'.

Adam Waite Over a year ago

You should be able to replace username.groupname with $USER and it should work with a straight copy paste for anyone. Worked a charm anyway thanks.

skywinder Over a year ago

To know your username just type: whoami

|

iwasrobbed · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-05 14:58:26Z

I only used (where username is your Mac login username)

sudo chown -R username ~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods

and

sudo chown -R username ~/.cocoapods

when I tried with the groupname parameter I got

chown: username.groupname: illegal user name

Of course I used my own username and groupname :)

I have resolved the issue by removing the content in the ~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods and then go to the project directory and pod install

the Tin Man · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-22 23:27:34Z

12

Removing the directories worked for me:

sudo rm -R ~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods sudo rm -R ~/.cocoapods/repos

If some other problems still exist.

Remove the Pods directory and the podFile.lock file.

Cocoapods just adds the directories again.

edited Sep 22, 2015 at 23:27

the Tin Man

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answered Jan 31, 2014 at 10:09

Martijn Mellens

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3 Comments

Raptor Over a year ago

~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods/GitHub does not exist.

Martijn Mellens Over a year ago

which version of CocoaPods do you have?

Georgiy Chebotarev Jul 29 at 7:43

Also you need to make a Clear Build in xCode. The final step) I got an error on this step, but xCode restart helped me.

Serg Smyk · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-22 22:52:27Z

6

It's just need to add permission flag --user-install
For updating use:
sudo gem update --user-install
And for installing use:
sudo gem install --user-install cocoapods

answered Oct 22, 2020 at 22:52

Serg Smyk

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1 Comment

Yogesh Rathore Over a year ago

its work for me after add permission flag --user-install in macos ventura 13.0.1

the Tin Man · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-22 23:32:21Z

5

The issue is with Mac OS X's default installation of Ruby. The Ruby/Gems installation is owned by root in the location you specified.

This is normal behavior unless you install a Ruby manager. I would recommend rbenv but RVM is popular as well.

These installed your Ruby installation in your $HOME folder. This way your user owns the Ruby and gem executables.

edited Sep 22, 2015 at 23:32

the Tin Man

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answered Apr 17, 2013 at 0:34

Keith Smiley

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4 Comments

godzilla Over a year ago

Thanks for the quick answer, I did find a work around, chown user ~/.cocoapod/master/git/FETCH_HEAD, this made my problem go away but I will look into the rbenv or RVM solution

godzilla Over a year ago

for my quick workaround I also had to change permissions of ~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods/GitHub, now it works but still a hack

Fabio Over a year ago

To be clear, you need to use sudo to install the gem unless you are using a Ruby manager. The other issues that you had are not expected and could have been caused by running sudo pod setup or sudo pod install.

godzilla Over a year ago

Thanks Fabio, I never ran pod setup, but when I run sudo pod install it creates root owned libs which wont compile. Also update to my quick fix, I had to chown everything under ~/.cocoapod/master/git/ I tested that and it works ok. I will look into the pod setup and the Ruby manager.

the Tin Man · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-22 23:31:22Z

With all the errors that I got while installing CocoaPods in some of my projects, I've finally succeeded in finding a pattern with it. Here it is:

Access your project folder from the terminal:

$ cd /Users/username/Downloads/MessagesTableViewController-master

Create a podfile:
```
$ touch podfile $ open -e podfile 
```
After the podfile is created, access it via the Finder and edit it in any other text editor except TextEdit because TextEdit sometimes messes up with apostrophes in the pod file. I used textWrangler. Write the following in the pod file; (Note these dependencies are for projects that support iOS version 6.0 and above)
```
platform :ios, '6.0' pod 'AFNetworking' 
```
Save the file and close it.
Go back to the terminal and see your pod version:
```
$ pod --version 
```
Depending on your pod version, if an update is required, run this command:
```
$ sudo gem update 
```
After the update completes, or it states that it is already up-to-date, you should install the cocoapods:
```
$ sudo gem install cocoapods 
```
And at the very end, just run the following commands:
```
$ sudo pod setup $ sudo pod install 
```

And Viola! It is done. You'll see a Pods named folder within your project folder and the dependency you stated in the pod file will be apparent in Pods folder as a sub-folder.

Happy coding :)

pfrank · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-03 01:15:12Z

Quick, easy, hacky solution:

sudo chmod -R 777 ~/.cocoapods sudo chmod -R 777 ~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods

the Tin Man · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-22 23:26:56Z

0

This is a known issue. There's more on the CocoaPods official web-site.

edited Sep 22, 2015 at 23:26

the Tin Man

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answered Sep 22, 2015 at 17:56

nickolay

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Comments

the Tin Man · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-22 23:27:15Z

0

Answering the original question:

Is sudo installation of cocoaPods the wrong way or normal way?

When I do a pod install I get:

Analyzing dependencies CocoaPods 0.36.0.beta.1 is available. To update use: `sudo gem install cocoapods --pre`

so I assume sudo is OK.

edited Sep 22, 2015 at 23:27

the Tin Man

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answered Jan 2, 2015 at 11:57

Snowcrash

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1 Comment

bearacuda13 Over a year ago

Your use of sudo would be to install an update to cocoapods itself, which is necessary. Sudo is not okay for 'sudo pod install', as it produces the error: [!] You cannot run CocoaPods as root.

Andre Guerra · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-05 20:07:32Z

I solved it by installing the most up to date version of Ruby. Instructions here: https://gorails.com/setup/osx/10.12-sierra I was then able to successfully run sudo gem update sudo gem install cocoapods

Nathan Gabriel · Accepted Answer · 2024-05-05 22:24:49Z

0

Deleting the project and cloning again resolved the issue.

answered May 5, 2024 at 22:24

Nathan Gabriel

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