How to install bison on mac OSX

See here. You can install with brew:

brew install bison

Then update your scripts or your shell config to use brew's bison first in
your PATH:

export PATH="$(brew --prefix bison)/bin:$PATH"

Or

export PATH="/usr/local/opt/bison/bin:$PATH"

I needed to set export PATH="/usr/local/opt/bison/bin:$PATH" brew install bison installs the bison new version at /usr/local/Cellar but this path is not set in the $PATH

To save a ton of time use either Macports or Homebrew. These will install all dependent packages for you.

I use Macports, and after installing it, it's as simple as:

$ sudo port install thrift

and it will be done before your coffee is ready.