Index: global/common.sh
==================================================================
--- global/common.sh
+++ global/common.sh
@@ -6,15 +6,10 @@
 	test "${!var}" == "" || return 0
 	say "we were not able to detect a default value for the configuration variable \$$var. please set this variable to $2 and try again."
 	exit 1
 }
 
-test "$to" = "" && {
-	say "\$to environment variable must be set to your build directory - are you running this script by hand? run ./build.sh in the root directory instead!"
-	exit 2
-}
-
 reqpack() {
 	if ! has "$1"; then
 		say "to $2 for libk, install the $1 package and try again"
 		exit 3
 	fi

Index: install.sh
==================================================================
--- install.sh
+++ install.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,51 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 source global/common.sh
 
-say "this component of the build system does not yet exist"
+check "prefix" "a directory to install to"
+build="${build:-out}"
+
+bindir="$prefix/bin"
+libdir="$prefix/lib"
+
+if [ "$prefix" = "/" ]; then
+	say "installing docs and headers into usr instad of /"
+	sharedir="$prefix/usr/share"
+	incdir="$prefix/usr/include"
+else
+	incdir="$prefix/include"
+	sharedir="$prefix/share"
+fi
+
+say "Starting install."
+
+# Libraries
+# These may or may not exist, depending on what library build is done, so check
+say "Installing libraries..."
+[ -e "$build/libk.a" ] && install -Dm644 -t "$libdir" "$build/libk.a"
+[ -e "$build/libk.so" ] && install -Dm644 -t "$libdir" "$build/libk.so"
+[ -e "$build/boot.o" ] && install -Dm644 -t "$libdir/libk" "$build/boot.o"
+
+# Binaries
+say "Installing binaries..."
+install -Dm755 -t "$bindir" "$build/kcore.testbin"
+install -Dm755 -t "$bindir" "$build/kcli.testbin"
+install -Dm755 -t "$bindir" "$build/kgraft.attach"
+
+# Includes
+say "Installing includes..."
+for inc in "$build"/k/*; do
+	install -Dm644 -t "$incdir/k" "$inc"
+done
+
+# Documentation
+say "Installing documentation..."
+for man in "$build"/doc/man/*; do
+	install -Dm644 -t "$sharedir/man" "$man"
+done
+for html in "$build"/doc/html/*; do
+	install -Dm644 -t "$sharedir/doc/libk/html" "$html"
+done
+for pdf in "$build"/doc/pdf/*; do
+	install -Dm644 -t "$sharedir/doc/libk/pdf" "$pdf"
+done
+say "Install done!"