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

From openssl/INSTALL

Package builders who want to configure the library for standard locations, but have the package installed somewhere else so that it can easily be packaged, can use

$ make INSTALL_PREFIX=/tmp/package-root install

(or specify "--install_prefix=/tmp/package-root" as a configure option). The specified prefix will be prepended to all installation target filenames.

This is non-standard but INSTALL_PREFIX is used in some other programs.

This works for OpenSSL versions before 1.1.x. OpenSSL 1.1.x and later are able to recognize usual DESTDIR.