make install make alone puts all relevant files into directories that are named by the macros INST_LIB, INST_ARCHLIB, INST_SCRIPT, INST_MAN1DIR and INST_MAN3DIR. All these default to something below ./blib if you are *not* building below the perl source directory. If you *are* building below the perl source, INST_LIB and INST_ARCHLIB default to ../../lib, and INST_SCRIPT is not defined. The *install* target of the generated Makefile copies the files found below each of the INST_* directories to their INSTALL* counterparts. Which counterparts are chosen depends on the setting of INSTALLDIRS according to the following table: INSTALLDIRS set to perl site vendor PERLPREFIX SITEPREFIX VENDORPREFIX INST_ARCHLIB INSTALLARCHLIB INSTALLSITEARCH INSTALLVENDORARCH INST_LIB INSTALLPRIVLIB INSTALLSITELIB INSTALLVENDORLIB INST_BIN INSTALLBIN INSTALLSITEBIN INSTALLVENDORBIN INST_SCRIPT INSTALLSCRIPT INSTALLSITESCRIPT INSTALLVENDORSCRIPT INST_MAN1DIR INSTALLMAN1DIR INSTALLSITEMAN1DIR INSTALLVENDORMAN1DIR INST_MAN3DIR INSTALLMAN3DIR INSTALLSITEMAN3DIR INSTALLVENDORMAN3DIR The INSTALL... macros in turn default to their %Config ($Config{installprivlib}, $Config{installarchlib}, etc.) counterparts. You can check the values of these variables on your system with perl '-V:install.*'