Using make on OSX

Question

I have a macbook I'm trying to do some development on. I have a program I want to build, and when I went to use make to build it I got a "command not found" error. I did some google and SO searches and it doesn't look like this is a common problem. Why don't I have make installed and how do I get it? I'm extra confused because I know I used it relatively recently (in the past month or so) when I was on this laptop.

Answer 1

If you've installed Xcode 4.3 and its Command Line Tools, just open Terminal and type the following: On Xcode 4.3, type the following in Terminal:

export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin

Answer 2

I agree with the other two answers: install the Apple Developer Tools.

But it is also worth noting that OS X ships with ant and rake.

Answer 3

For Xcode 4.1 you can simply add /Developer/usr/bin to the PATH environment variable. This is easily done:

$ export PATH=$PATH:/Developer/usr/bin

Also be certain to update your ~/.bashrc (or ~/.profile or ~/.bash_login) file.

Answer 4

In addition, if you have migrated your user files and applications from one mac to another, you need to install Apple Developer Tools all over again. The migration assistant does not account for the developer tools installation.

Answer 5

I found the Developer Tools not as readily available as others. In El Capitan, in terminal I just used gcc -v, it then said gcc wasn't available and asked if I wanted to install the command line Apple Developer Tools. No downloading of Xcode required. Terminal session below:

Pauls-MBP:~ paulhillman$ gcc -v
xcode-select: note: no developer tools were found at '/Applications/Xcode.app', requesting install. Choose an option in the dialog to download the command line developer tools.
Pauls-MBP:~ paulhillman$ gcc -v
Configured with: --prefix=/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
Apple LLVM version 7.3.0 (clang-703.0.31)
Target: x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin

Answer 6

You will have to install the "Developer Tools" that are provided as optional packages in OS X installation disks.