How can I install a newer version of make on Mac OS?

Question

Mac OS comes with make version 3.81 and I want a newer version (>=4.0) for use on some projects.

How can I install a newer version, preferably using brew?

That's related to GNU Make --output-sync doesn't work? as I want to use some feature output sync on parallel builds.

Answer 1

brew ships a make in the homebrew/dupes tap. brew install homebrew/dupes/make puts a gmake binary in the PATH to avoid clashes with the default make version on macOS.

The option --with-default-names will install as make and thus shadow the default version.

See brew info homebrew/dupes/make for more details.

homebrew/dupes/make: stable 4.2.1 (bottled)
Utility for directing compilation
https://www.gnu.org/software/make/
/usr/local/Cellar/make/4.2.1 (12 files, 957.3K) *
  Poured from bottle on 2016-08-11 at 20:18:41
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-dupes/blob/master/make.rb
==> Dependencies
Optional: guile ✘
==> Options
--with-default-names
        Do not prepend 'g' to the binary
--with-guile
        Build with guile support