How to install Python to your local directory

1. download source tarball from official website:
http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.5/

2. decompress the tarball:
tar -zxvf Python-2.5.tgz

3. change prefix in file Python-2.6.5/configure:
change: ac_default_prefix=/usr/local
to: ac_default_prefix=/home/username/local/lib/Python-2.6.5

4. run the following commands:
./configure
make
make install

5. after all the commands above have been done,
you need to add /home/username/local/lib/Python-2.6.5/bin to your PATH environment variable, and add /home/username/local/lib/Python-2.6.5/lib/python2.6 to PYTHONPATH