in reply to Installing modules to a private module directory
After struggling with docs from ExtUtils::MakeMaker and Module::Build, I managed to install the modules with the following command:
perl Makefile.PL INSTALLDIRS=perl PREFIX=/path/to/appl/lib LIB=/path/t +o/appl/lib make make install
Well, I think that covers the first three ways you are informed about. While the other two gave me permission error (as a normal user), only PREFIX installed smoothly. However, it layout its stuffs (lib, share, man, bin) under /path/to/appl/lib.
I somehow insisted on using so-called "standard mechanism" but failed to prevent the extra stuff from spring. One thing I noticed was I also got i486-linux-gnu-thread-multi directory for, I thought, XS modules. I don't think I would get this directory with your cp -pr approach, but I believe that directory is just a fancy place for whatever it is.
Fortunately, I didn't get any problem regarding PREFIX. It just worked.
Open source softwares? Share and enjoy. Make profit from them if you can. Yet, share and enjoy!