DESTDIR and PREFIX of make

Question

I am trying to make software install to a specific directory. I found several ways, but not sure what are the differences between them.

1. ./configure --pre

Answer 1

This can help illustrating the use of DESTDIR and --prefix (from here):

Multiple installs using --prefix and DESTDIR:

Sepcify a different --prefix location/option for each build - at configure time. For eg:

untar petsc tar ball
./configure --prefix=/opt/petsc/petsc-3.9.0-mpich --with-mpi-dir=/opt/mpich
make
make install DESTDIR=/tmp/petsc-pkg
untar petsc tar ball
./configure --prefix=/opt/petsc/petsc-3.9.0-openmpi --with-mpi-dir=/opt/openmpi
make
make install DESTDIR=/tmp/petsc-pkg