How to install BSD make on a Mac (while preserving GNU make)?
macos, makefile
Solution
Installing BSD make
If you don't already have a `/usr/bin/bsdmake` (apparently it used to come with OS X/Xcode, but no longer does), install Homebrew, then:
brew install bsdmake
GNU co-habitation
To avoid conflicts with GNU make, Homebrew will install BSD make as `bsdmake`. In most cases it should be sufficient to build your software with `bsdmake all`. Sometimes you may have to tell it that your BSD make is called `bsdmake` and not `make`.
Removal
If you decide to get rid of BSD make for whatever reason, Homebrew will be happy to clean up for you by invoking:
brew uninstall bsdmake
Problem
I have two questions regarding `make` on my Mac: one regarding installation of a second `make` flavor, the second regarding how to manage the two flavors. I need to install BSD `make` on my Mac, but I don't want to remove the GNU `make` that is standard on the Mac; Berkeley is for a special project. In spite of the extensive resources for installing BSD, I haven't been able to figure out where to get and how to install that single program. What is the best way to do this? I'm thinking that I'll need to put it in `/usr/local/bin` while GNU `make`, which was provided by the Mac OS developer tools, will stay where it is in `/bin`. Then I can manage which make is called with an alias. I'm still a *nix newbie; is this a reasonable strategy or is there a better way?