Install package without root privileges and compiling to specific directory

I would like to automatically install the required software in a shell script if it is not already present. I would like to use apt-get to install software (my example is gedit) to a specific directory without using root privileges and without running additional program specific scripts for compiling the software.

I tried the approach from (last post from user172681) with the example of gedit, but it results in an error.

Example:

cd test
apt-get download gedit

Get:1 trusty/main gedit amd64 3.10.4-0ubuntu4 [478 kB] Fetched 478 kB in 0s (3.356 kB/s)

ls

gedit_3.10.4-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb

dpkg -i --force-not-root --root=~/test gedit_3.10.4-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb

dpkg: error: unable to access dpkg status area: No such file or directory

Any ideas ?

2 Answers

dpkg -i gedit_3.10.4-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb --force-not-root --root=~/test 

You have not provided the filename where it expects the filename, so it throws the error "no such file or directory".

I actually made a tool for this purpose I really hope it helps someone just see the readme