CheckInstall is a Debian administrator's friend -- turning ./configure;make;make install programs into .deb packages automatically.
Of course, that's all OK as far as it goes – you probably should argue that a production Debian host shouldn't have anything except Debian repository packaged and user-owned code on it anyway. But if you do want to “install from source” on a well-managed machine, CheckInstall does the trick.
However, CheckInstall can bite – hard. It chmods / to 700 while it runs, which may be necessary (I haven't fully investigated that decision) but can cause transient errors. Worse, however, if you manage to interrupt CheckInstall, under some circumstances it will leave / at 700 without telling you!
This bug seems to have been fixed in Debian's 1.6.1−1 –
There are a few places on the web that show up when you search for this issue …
Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake LTS) does not have the newer version of course, so I've filed a bug on the Launchpad to see if it can be fixed in 1.5.3−3ubuntu2+ … https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/checkinstall/+bug/165074