install make command without already having make (mac os 10.5)

Question

I'm trying to write a script that uses the make command, but Mac os 10.5 doesn't come with make installed by default, and when you download the make source code from gnu's website, you have to use make itself to compile and install it. which is hard if you don't have it in the first place. How can I install make?
(I know you can get make by installing Xcode and the developer tools that come with mac os, but I don't want people to have to go find their mac os install dvds to be able to use the script.)

It doesn't even have to be make, i'm just looking for a utility that you can easily download in a script (using ftp or curl) and use to compile source code.

Answer 1

Have you tried looking at the fink project? It looks like they have a make package. http://pdb.finkproject.org/pdb/browse.php?name=make&sec=devel

Answer 2

The Developer Tools are included on the OS X install disk under "Optional Installs".

Edit:

You can download Xcode if you're registered as an Apple Developer.

Answer 3

How about using a precompiled make binary?

See:

http://rudix.org/packages-mn.html#make

Answer 4

A GNU Make source tarball contains a build.sh script to resolve this chicken-and-egg situation. From the README:

If you need to build GNU Make and have no other make program to use, you can use the shell script build.sh instead. To do this, first run configure as described in INSTALL. Then, instead of typing make to build the program, type sh build.sh. This should compile the program in the current directory. Then you will have a Make program that you can use for ./make install, or whatever else.

Yes, they thought of this problem!