Compiling a program. Install files to '/usr/shere/' not /usr/local/share'

[J_Me]

Can you specify a destination folder e.g. '/usr/shere/' rather than /usr/local/share' when compiling/installing a program with './configure, make, make install'.
I can give you more details of what I'm trying to do if needed.
Thanks

[steeldriver]

It depends I think - in my experience most source distributions using autoconf (./configure script) support a --prefix parameter to set the root of the install location (e.g. --prefix=/opt or --prefix=/usr instead of /usr/local), but whether there is fine control over installation of particular subcomponents is a more hit and miss. By convention, if you run


./configure --help

it should list the available parameters / options for your particular source package.

[J_Me]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction steeldriver.

[monkeybrain20122]

./configure --prefix=/usr

You may also want to use checkinstall instead of make install. it creates a .deb so after installation you will find your package in the software management system (e.g synaptic) instead of scattering all over the file system. That way it is easy to keep track and remove (in case you need to)
checkinstall needs to be installed from repo


sudo apt-get install checkinstall

so the procedure would now be

./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo checkinstall

[J_Me]

@monkeybrain20122
Thanks for the clear and concise explanation