Example of how to install nginx to a specified directory

./configure \
--prefix=directory you want to install to\
--sbin-path=/directory you want to install/nginx \
--conf-path=/directory you want to install/nginx.conf \
--pid-path=/directory you want to install/nginx.pid \
--with-http_ssl_module \
--with-pcre=/usr/local/pcre-8.38 \
--with-zlib=/usr/local/zlib-1.2.11 \
--with-openssl=/usr/local/openssl-1.0.1t  

make && make install 

test -d

  cd /usr/local/
  # Download wget ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-8.38.tar.gz
  # Unzip tar -zxvf pcre-8.38.tar.gz

  cd pcre-8.38

  ./configure
  # Compile make && make install

  # Remember this installation directory, it will be used later# /usr/local/pcre-8.38

  cd /usr/local/
  # Download wget http://www.zlib.net/zlib-1.2.11.tar.gz
  # Unzip tar -zxvf zlib-1.2.11.tar.gz

  cd zlib-1.2.11
  
  ./configure
  # Compile make && make install

  # Remember this installation directory, it will be used later# /usr/local/zlib-1.2.11

  cd /usr/local/
  wget https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.0.1t.tar.gz
  tar -zxvf openssl-1.0.1t.tar.gz
  
  # Remember this installation directory, it will be used later# /usr/local/openssl-1.0.1t

  cd /usr/local
  #Download and decompress wget http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.4.2.tar.gz
  tar -zxvf nginx-1.4.2.tar.gz
  # Note: This is only the source code cd nginx-1.4.2

  # Set constants ./configure \
  --prefix=/customlocation/\
  --sbin-path=/custom location/nginx \
  --conf-path=/custom location/nginx.conf \
  --pid-path=/custom location/nginx.pid \
  --with-http_ssl_module \
  --with-pcre=/usr/local/pcre-8.38 \ # The location of the pcre just installed --with-zlib=/usr/local/zlib-1.2.11 \ # The location of the zlib just installed --with-openssl=/usr/local/openssl-1.0.1t # The location of the openssl just installed # Compile make && make install

  # Important: If not executed, the real nginx file test -d will not be created