>> For non-standard builds like these you may also need to setup
>> LD_LIBRARY_PATH and stuff properly
>
> Argh didn't realize $HOME/.local was XDG, most env variables are
> probably set up correctly already. I normally have one software in a
> separate prefix, so it gets more more complicated.

I've found it very easy to get different Scheme implementations built
and installed into ~/.local. You may be right that it's because the
conventional directory layout in ~/.local mirrors the /usr/local layout.
There may be some implementations that require more effort.

Some Linux distros are nice enough to do things like put ~/.local/bin in
your PATH automatically. ldconfig and pkg-config may be necessary to set
up on some systems.

We have lots of Scheme Dockerfiles here:
<https://github.com/weinholt/scheme-docker>. Build instructions for this
guide can probably be adapted from those Dockerfiles in many cases.
Though the Docker containers don't use ~/.local -- they generally use
/usr/local.