ERROR: Error installing cocoapods: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension

Run following command

 brew cleanup -d -v 

Then run below command

brew install cocoapods 

Note: If you see failed to link then run brew link cocoapods

If linking is getting failed then run

brew link --overwrite cocoapods

This is how it get solved for me

For someone who is having m1 chip system they need to run this via Rosetta

select Terminal and press cmd(⌘)+I and check the "Open using Rosetta" option. ( For m1 chip based mac )

First, check the version of Ruby you are using.

$ruby -v
ruby 2.7.1p83 (2020-03-31 revision a0c7c23c9c) [x86_64-darwin18]
$ which ruby
usr/bin/ruby

Now use Homebrew to install the latest Ruby.

$ brew install ruby
==> ruby
By default, binaries installed by gem will be placed into:
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/2.7.0/bin

You may want to add this to your PATH.

ruby is keg-only, which means it was not symlinked into /usr/local,
because macOS already provides this software and installing another version in
parallel can cause all kinds of trouble.

If you need to have ruby first in your PATH run:

$ echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin:$PATH"' >> /Users/xxx/.bash_profile

For compilers to find ruby you may need to set:

$ export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/ruby/lib"
$ export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/ruby/include"

Follow the instructions to set PATH. Now you will go to see the installed Ruby. Make sure to replace the 'xxx' with your username.

$ echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin:$PATH"' >> /Users/xxx/.bash_profile
$ echo 'export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/ruby/lib"' >> ~/.bash_profile
$ echo 'export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/ruby/include"' >> ~/.bash_profile

$ source ~/.bash_profile

Finally, Make sure your PATH is in place.

$ ruby -v
ruby 2.7.1p83 (2020-03-31 revision a0c7c23c9c) [x86_64-darwin18]
$ which ruby
/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin/ruby

You're good to go! Make sure you install by specifying the save destination as follows.

$ sudo gem install -n /usr/local/bin cocoapods