Simple installation from source on Linux - c++

Question

I'm trying to figure out a simplified way for installing C and C++ code
and libraries built from them, primarily for Linux. I think GNU Autotools, CMake, etc. would be overkill for what I'm trying to do.
An example: I've written some code which, when 'make' is run, builds to
create a library 'example.a'. (I'm going with static linking thus far.
Shared libraries will introduce still more issues; I'll crawl before I walk.) Use of the functions requires including 'example1.h', 'example2.h', etc.
With Autotools, one would run 'make install' or 'sudo make install' to
copy example.a to /usr/local/lib and the include files to /usr/local/include.
If executables had been built, those would get copied to /usr/local/bin.
I've tried adding the following lines to my makefile:
install:
cp example.a /usr/local/lib
cp example1.h /usr/local/include
cp example2.h /usr/local/include
cp example /usr/local/bin
This seems to work, mostly. Other projects are then able to "see"
the .h files and build correctly. But the .a file is not found; the only
way to get it to be linked is to explicitly give the path as
/usr/local/lib/example.a. (Though gcc insists it's looking for libraries
in that path.) So:
Question 1: Should my user-built libraries be put in /usr/local/lib? Or am
I using the wrong directory?
Now, my next problem: this has to be done with 'sudo make install'.
I'm thinking that for some projects of this ilk, where only one user will
be making use of the code in question, the libraries should go someplace
such as $HOME/lib, include files to $HOME/include, executables to
$HOME/bin.
Question 2: Is there a "standard" way to install includes/libraries for
just the current user, rather than doing so for all users? (Thus avoiding
the need for root use, and I'd think it would be a "cleaner" system if only
the user using the program had to deal with these files.)

Answer 1

You should probably use install to copy with explicit permissions. example.a probably isn't being found because it doesn't start with lib (a stupid requirement, I know).
Putting your lib, include, and bin under $HOME/.local is probably the closest thing to a per-user standard setup.
Edit:
I just tested it and it /usr/local/lib works fine for me:
foo.c
#include <stdio.h>
void foo() { puts("foo"); }
Compile and install:
gcc -c foo.c
ar crs libfoo.a foo.o
install -m 0755 /usr/local/lib #0644 should do too
In a different directory:
main.c
void foo(void);
int main() { foo(); return 0; }
Compile, link, and run:
gcc main.c -lfoo
./a.out