title: Simple way to install a setuptools python module without root access?
body: <p>Say I a have python module with a proper setup.py which I would like to install to my own user.</p>
  
  <p>However a simple installation will fail as such, since it attempts to install globally on my system </p>
  
  <pre><code>% python setup.py install
  running install
  running build
  running build_py
  creating build
  creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7
  copying src/somemodule.py -&gt; build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7
  running install_lib
  copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/somemodule.py -&gt; /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages
  error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/somemodule.py'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have root access to the machine. This is not the point. </p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to install with setuptools (say, as a user-specific site-packages). I am not looking for virtualenv nor <code>python setup.py build</code>, but something in line with what I would be able to with pip as in</p>
  
  <pre><code>% pip install --user somemodule.py 
  </code></pre>