Installing Python 2.7 without root

Question

I tried installing Python 2.7 without root on a remote linux machine. I ran the commands

./configure prefix=/  
make install DESTDIR=/xxx/yyy/ 

Answer 1

You should have prefix=/xxx/yyy. With prefix=/, it tries to install the libraries to /lib/python2.7, rather than /xxx/yyy/lib/python2.7.