How to install libraries without sudo?

Question

I want to run a lengthy computation on a cluster computer. The cluster computer has a Linux OS and a compiler but no GUI, just a command line. The problem is that I cannot use the sudo command to install additional libraries.

My program is in C++ and uses some Qt stuff such as QString. It also uses GSL and Eigen libraries. I am especially worried about the Qt libraries, since the installation seems nontrivial and the libraries seem very large.

I am making all my development on an Ubuntu OS, but my knowledge of Linux is minimal.

What do you suggest? Have you ever installed Qt "locally"? I can also attempt to refactor Qt out of my program using std::string and standard C++ equivalents where possible.

Answer 1

Your options are pretty much twofold: Have your system administrator install the libraries in the "normal" location for you, or check the documentation for how to install them in a directory to which you have write access (probably under your home directory) and then link your application against that.

Answer 2

If you have uploaded your shared-object (.so*) libraries to your home directory, modifying your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable[1] might work. On my system, this variable is empty, which indicates that I would add /lib, /usr/lib, and any other default system library paths to this variable first, like

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib/:/usr/lib:/home/user/lib

If LD_LIBRARY_PATH is nonempty, try

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:/home/user/lib

1: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-libraries.html