I'm getting more and more of a need for make (getting "deeper" into C++/C), so I downloaded it from here. Then, I looked into the folder and started to do the install directions. I successfully started up configure, and got this:
loading cache ./config.cache
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... no
checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
configure: error: no acceptable cc found in $PATH
So I interpreted that to mean that I needed GCC (or some other "cc"...?). So I went and downloaded it from here. I ran its configure, and got this slightly longer (but still failed) result:
checking build system type... i386-apple-darwin11.4.2
checking host system type... i386-apple-darwin11.4.2
checking target system type... i386-apple-darwin11.4.2
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether ln works... yes
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /usr/bin/sed
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... no
checking for nawk... no
checking for awk... awk
checking for libatomic support... yes
checking for libitm support... yes
checking for libsanitizer support... yes
checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cl.exe... no
configure: error: in `/Users/calebplace/Downloads/gcc-4.8.2':
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
See `config.log' for more details.
Which means I need a C compiler (is this what a "cc" is?) before I can install it?
Basically, not being exactly a whiz at command-line usage or low-level computer languages (litotes alert), I was wondering...
Can anyone explain how to install make?
You can either download a pre-built binary or you can build it yourself. However, if you are going to build it yourself, you need a C compiler (and probably make too) in order to do the compilation — a chicken and egg situation.
So, on Mac, you will probably need to get hold of XCode from Apple, and then install the XCode command line tools too.
Or you will need to go to one of the third-party sites (Fink is one; there's another whose name eludes me right now) and get GCC etc from there.
With XCode installed, I was able to build GCC 4.8.1 fairly straight-forwardly on Mac OS X 10.8.5 (but I had problems with 4.8.0 when it was first released). You do need to download enough prerequisites, though.