title: Installing programs in different Linux machines with very limited access
body: <p>I have to log into Linux servers from different customers and use there essential tools like SVN, etc. Most of the times I get no root access, and usually the administrator is on holidays :) so I have to get the way to use this tools there. Sometimes this is very straightforward process, just compile the code. But in some of the cases, I have to get before a lot of different tools compiled before it, so I can easily spend two hours just to get SVN compiled. </p>
  
  <p>I wonder what do you think is the best workaround or solution for this. I thought about the following:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>There is somekind of tool that can convert a RPM (or DEB or similar) package to a static binary with all necessary libraries, etc, included there. Even if I get a very big file.</p></li>
  <li><p>If I need to use program "X", I could create a script like call_X.sh that when invoked, uses SSH to send the input to the program "X" installed in some remote machine, do there the necessary operations, and get the resulting files back.</p></li>
  </ol>