I Wrote a program and I want to set up the install . I have the binary,a glade file that has some icons that go with it,and some data files. I was looking at some other stuff on the system and they put it all in different locations. Would it be too sloppy to find one directory and stick it in ? Because that's the way it runs in the source directory because it's wrote into the source code . So if I rewrite it to run from the install it's not going to run without installing it, if I'm testing the source code.Right?

For yourself only? Normally I put those in /usr/local/bin (only if it's done.) The Glade stuff should stay in a working directory unless the program needs some of it.
ta0kira

PS At second glance, it looks like the program needs something in the directory it's built in. Correct?

It's a release version. I've never installed my own code .Everything works in the source directory.The binary needs the glade file. I'm not sure how I would move the glade file or parts of it either because I used anjuta and autoconf to generate the make file.I don't understand that stuff very well yet. So it would be easier to dump it all in one directory ,but it's a release so I want make it nice as I can.

Your makefile should install them automatically with make install if you're using automake and autoconf.
ta0kira

Normally, you would want to put executables in ${prefix}/bin, library files into ${prefix}/lib, headers in ${prefix}/include, and resource files and such into ${prefix}/share/${progname}. If you do it correctly, you will let the configure script tell you where prefix is (when most individual configure packages, prefix is /usr/local, but when most distros configure packages, prefix is usually /usr). In fact, you might use the autoconf variable $(datadir) for your resource and data location. You can use the make system to define a macro which hardcodes any locations into sourcecode.

Anything which is not installed by the package manager, I put in /opt or --if I wrote it--$HOME/util. The latter is a VERY small folder....

It lets you set the directory where different parts of your project go to when you do make install. So I can install the binary to /usr/bin but it needs all the other parts. A lot of programs have parts in /usr/share. Could I have the installer put the whole thing in /usr/local/bin/myprogram ?

Got it .Just had to add PACKAGE_SOURCE_DIR in front of the directory name and it automatically sets everything up. Thanks.