Cannot compile exla on Mac

[CoderDennis]

When I add {:exla, "~> 0.9.0"} as a dependency and run mix compile I get the following error:

** (Mix) Could not compile with "make" (exit status: 2).
You need to have gcc and make installed. Try running the
commands "gcc --version" and / or "make --version". If these programs
are not installed, you will be prompted to install them.

gcc and make are available at /usr/bin, which is on my PATH.

I first encountered the error in LiveBook with Mix.install, but putting it in a regular mix.exs file gives the same error.

I'm on a 2023 MacBook Pro with Apple M2 Pro chip and running macOS Sonoma 14.6.1

[josevalim]

Can you paste everything that was printed since mix compile or mix deps.compile. There may be more important information before the messages in red.

[CoderDennis]

➜  exla_test mix deps.get
Resolving Hex dependencies...
Resolution completed in 0.726s
New:
  complex 0.5.0
  elixir_make 0.8.4
  exla 0.9.0
  nimble_pool 1.1.0
  nx 0.9.0
  telemetry 1.3.0
  xla 0.8.0
* Getting exla (Hex package)
* Getting elixir_make (Hex package)
* Getting nimble_pool (Hex package)
* Getting nx (Hex package)
* Getting telemetry (Hex package)
* Getting xla (Hex package)
* Getting complex (Hex package)
➜  exla_test mix compile
===> Analyzing applications...
===> Compiling telemetry
==> complex
Compiling 2 files (.ex)
Generated complex app
==> nx
Compiling 36 files (.ex)
Generated nx app
==> nimble_pool
Compiling 2 files (.ex)
Generated nimble_pool app
==> elixir_make
Compiling 8 files (.ex)
Generated elixir_make app
==> xla
Compiling 5 files (.ex)
Generated xla app
==> exla
c++ -fPIC -I/Users/dennis/.asdf/installs/erlang/27.0/erts-15.0/include -Icache/xla_extension/include -Wall -Wno-sign-compare -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wno-comment -std=c++17 -w -DLLVM_VERSION_STRING= -O3 -c c_src/exla/exla.cc -o cache/objs/exla.o
c++ -fPIC -I/Users/dennis/.asdf/installs/erlang/27.0/erts-15.0/include -Icache/xla_extension/include -Wall -Wno-sign-compare -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wno-comment -std=c++17 -w -DLLVM_VERSION_STRING= -O3 -c c_src/exla/exla_mlir.cc -o cache/objs/exla_mlir.o
c++ -fPIC -I/Users/dennis/.asdf/installs/erlang/27.0/erts-15.0/include -Icache/xla_extension/include -Wall -Wno-sign-compare -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wno-comment -std=c++17 -w -DLLVM_VERSION_STRING= -O3 -c c_src/exla/custom_calls.cc -o cache/objs/custom_calls.o
c++ -fPIC -I/Users/dennis/.asdf/installs/erlang/27.0/erts-15.0/include -Icache/xla_extension/include -Wall -Wno-sign-compare -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wno-comment -std=c++17 -w -DLLVM_VERSION_STRING= -O3 -c c_src/exla/exla_nif_util.cc -o cache/objs/exla_nif_util.o
c++ -fPIC -I/Users/dennis/.asdf/installs/erlang/27.0/erts-15.0/include -Icache/xla_extension/include -Wall -Wno-sign-compare -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wno-comment -std=c++17 -w -DLLVM_VERSION_STRING= -O3 -c c_src/exla/exla_client.cc -o cache/objs/exla_client.o
c++ -fPIC -I/Users/dennis/.asdf/installs/erlang/27.0/erts-15.0/include -Icache/xla_extension/include -Wall -Wno-sign-compare -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wno-comment -std=c++17 -w -DLLVM_VERSION_STRING= -O3 -c c_src/exla/exla_cuda.cc -o cache/objs/exla_cuda.o
c++ -fPIC -I/Users/dennis/.asdf/installs/erlang/27.0/erts-15.0/include -Icache/xla_extension/include -Wall -Wno-sign-compare -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wno-comment -std=c++17 -w -DLLVM_VERSION_STRING= -O3 -c c_src/exla/ipc.cc -o cache/objs/ipc.o
In file included from c_src/exla/exla_client.cc:1:
c_src/exla/exla_client.h:4:10: fatal error: 'memory' file not found
    4 | #include <memory>
      |          ^~~~~~~~
c_src/exla/exla.cc:1:10: fatal error: 'sstream' file not found
    1 | #include <sstream>
      |          ^~~~~~~~~
In file included from In file included from c_src/exla/exla_nif_util.cc:c_src/exla/exla_mlir.cc1::
1c_src/exla/exla_nif_util.h:
:c_src/exla/exla_mlir.h4::410::10 :fatal error:  'complex' file not foundfatal error:
'stack' file not found
    4 |     #4i | n#cilnucdleu d<ec o<msptlIn file included from ec_src/exla/exla_cuda.cca:c1k:
>c_src/exla/exla_cuda.h
:      3| :         ^~~~~~~10
: fatal error: 'cstddef' file not found
x>
3       | | #         ^~~~~~~~~i
nclude <cstddef>
      |          ^~~~~~~~~
1 error generated.
In file included from c_src/exla/custom_calls.cc:3:
In file included from cache/xla_extension/include/Eigen/Dense:1:
In file included from cache/xla_extension/include/Eigen/Core:19:
cache/xla_extension/include/Eigen/src/Core/util/Macros.h:714:10: fatal error: 'cmath' file not found
  714 | #include <cmath>
      |          ^~~~~~~
In file included from c_src/exla/ipc.cc:1:
c_src/exla/ipc.h:3:10: fatal error: 'cstddef' file not found
    3 | #include <cstddef>
      |          ^~~~~~~~~
make: *** [cache/objs/exla_cuda.o] Error 1
make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
1 error generated.
make: *** [cache/objs/ipc.o] Error 1
1 error generated.
make: *** [cache/objs/custom_calls.o] Error 1
1 error generated.
make: *** [cache/objs/exla_nif_util.o] Error 1
1 error generated.
make: *** [cache/objs/exla_mlir.o] Error 1
1 error generated.
make: *** [cache/objs/exla_client.o] Error 1
1 error generated.
make: *** [cache/objs/exla.o] Error 1
could not compile dependency :exla, "mix compile" failed. Errors may have been logged above. You can recompile this dependency with "mix deps.compile exla --force", update it with "mix deps.update exla" or clean it with "mix deps.clean exla"
==> exla_test
** (Mix) Could not compile with "make" (exit status: 2).
You need to have gcc and make installed. Try running the
commands "gcc --version" and / or "make --version". If these programs
are not installed, you will be prompted to install them.

[josevalim]

So this is the root cause:

In file included from c_src/exla/exla_client.cc:1:
c_src/exla/exla_client.h:4:10: fatal error: 'memory' file not found
    4 | #include <memory>
      |          ^~~~~~~~
c_src/exla/exla.cc:1:10: fatal error: 'sstream' file not found
    1 | #include <sstream>
      |          ^~~~~~~~~

Have you installed XCode command line tools? xcode-select --install?

[CoderDennis]

> xcode-select --install
xcode-select: note: Command line tools are already installed. Use "Software Update" in 
System Settings or the softwareupdate command line interface to install updates

I checked System Settings and XCode was not listed in available updates.

I'm running the Sonoma update to see if that makes a difference.

[josevalim]

This is weird. It says your computer is missing some fundamental C++ libraries (memory.h is C++ 98 iirc). So something in your machine is missing or your env vars is pointing to a separate C++ installation. For example, I can find memory at cat /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include/c++/v1/memory

[CoderDennis]

I found it in /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX15.0.sdk/usr/include/ and added that to my PATH, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

[josevalim]

I don't think PATH is used for library/header files. It uses other keys but I am not sure. This article may have some hints: https://www.maven.de/2020/05/using-clang-on-macos-to-compile-g-libstdc-compatible-binaries/

[seanmor5]

I think for includes you need CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH

[CoderDennis]

On StackOverflow I found the command gcc -v -E - < /dev/null which lists directories that are searched for includes. It shows /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include in the list which does have memory.h in it on my machine.

CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH was empty (or not set ?) so I set it to that same include directory, but that didn't make a difference.

[CoderDennis]

Now I have also tried editing the deps/exla/Makefile by adding more -I parameters to CFLAGS for the directories that contain memory.h and sstream.h but the errors that those files aren't found persist. 🤷

I also re-installed the XCode Command Line Tools.

[CoderDennis]

I tried again today with editing Makefile. Adding -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX15.0.sdk/usr/include/c++/v1 to the CFLAGS on line 28 removes all the errors.

That works for using mix compile on a regular project from the command line. The following works in LiveBook:

System.put_env("CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH", "/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX15.0.sdk/usr/include/c++/v1")

Mix.install([:exla])

[CoderDennis]

So, to sum up, the directory @josevalim mentioned /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include/c++/v1 added to the environment variable @seanmor5 mentioned CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH made it work. Thank you both!

[josevalim]

For Livebook, if you go to the menu, it can open up .livebookdesktop.sh and you can configure any env var you want there.