Install compiled software

By default, it is not possible to install any software globally via sudo or other mechanisms.

However, standard GNU Make (and other) build frameworks allow to customize the install target, by setting a prefix for the bin, lib, share, … directories.

This means, modifying instructions like this:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

to be similar to the following:

$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME/.local
$ make
$ make install

should work!

Then, the compiled software will end up in your ~/.local directory, i.e. binaries will be in ~/.local/bin/… and hence be in your $PATH.