If you put the path where make install installs before the path where the old make is found it will use the newer make.

If the old one lives in /opt/xcode/bin and make install installs to /usr/local/bin, then make sure /usr/local/bin comes before /opt/xcode/bin in your PATH variable.

PATH=/usr/local/bin:/opt/xcode/bin

Update for newer versions:

The command line versions can now be installed straight from the command line itself;

• Open "Terminal" (it is located in Applications/Utilities)
• In the terminal window, run the command xcode-select --install
• In the windows that pops up, click Install, and agree to the Terms of Service.

Once the installation is complete, the command line utilities should be set up property.

Older versions:

Installing recent Xcode versions confusingly enough does not automatically install the command line tools. To install the command line tools when they're not automatically installed;

• Start Xcode.
• Go to Xcode/Preferences.
• Click the "Downloads" tab.
• Click "Components".
• Click "Install" on the command line tools line.

That will install the command line tools and make them accessible from a regular command line.

Yes, you can run:

brew install homebrew/core/make

on earlier systems this was:

brew install homebrew/dupes/make

This will install make 4.2.1.

Another option, if you want to retain the system installed make version, is to install remake instead.

brew install remake

You need to set your PATH so that /usr/local/bin is ahead of, i.e. before /usr/bin because homebrew puts its binaries in /usr/local/bin.

So, for a one-off command, you can run:

/usr/local/bin/make -v

but in general, you want to set your PATH in your $HOME/.profile or in $HOME/.bash_profile like this:

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

In general, you will need to source your profile:

source ~/.profile

or log out and log back in again after changing it for it to take effect.