Problem scenario
You want to install make on Linux. You want it to work on any type of Linux (e.g., Red Hat, Debian and SUSE derivatives). What should you do?
Solution
Prerequisite
Install the C language compiler. If you need assistance, see this posting: How Do You Install a C Compiler on Linux?
Procedures
Run this script:
a=$(which gcc)
echo $a" was found."
echo "This will fail if no c compiler is installed."
sleep 2
version=4.3
curl -L http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/make-$version.tar.gz > /tmp/make-$version.tar.gz
mv /tmp/make-4.3.tar.gz /usr/bin/
cd /usr/bin
tar xf make-$version.tar.gz
cd make-$version
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
rm make
bash build.sh
rm /usr/bin/make
echo "Ignore a message like this:"
echo "rm: cannot remove '/usr/bin/make': No such file or directory"
echo "That message can be safely disregarded."
ln -s /usr/bin/make-$version/make /usr/bin/make