diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ec6711
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+include Makefile.inc
+
+SUBDIRS     = kpatch-build kpatch kmod
+BUILD_DIRS   = $(SUBDIRS:%=build-%)
+INSTALL_DIRS = $(SUBDIRS:%=install-%)
+CLEAN_DIRS   = $(SUBDIRS:%=clean-%)
+
+.PHONY: $(SUBDIRS) $(BUILD_DIRS) $(INSTALL_DIRS) $(CLEAN_DIRS)
+
+
+all: $(BUILD_DIRS)
+$(BUILD_DIRS):
+	$(MAKE) -C $(@:build-%=%)
+
+install: $(INSTALL_DIRS)
+$(INSTALL_DIRS):
+	$(MAKE) -C $(@:install-%=%) install
+
+clean: $(CLEAN_DIRS)
+$(CLEAN_DIRS):
+	$(MAKE) -C $(@:clean-%=%) clean
diff --git a/Makefile.inc b/Makefile.inc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e32efe9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile.inc
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+SHELL = /bin/sh
+CC    = gcc
+
+INSTALL = /usr/bin/install
+
+PREFIX    ?= /usr/local
+SBINDIR    = $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/sbin
+LIBEXECDIR = $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/libexec/kpatch
+DATADIR    = $(DESTDIR)$(PREFIX)/share/kpatch
+
+.PHONY: all install clean
+.DEFAULT: all
diff --git a/README b/README
index 0c337d5..4262674 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -12,20 +12,30 @@ scale-out, run on a single machine and are very downtime
 sensitive or require a heavyweight approval process and
 notification of workload users in the event of downtime.
 
+
+INSTALLATION
+
+The default install prefix is in /usr/local.
+
+    make
+    sudo make install
+
+
 QUICK START
 
 NOTE: While kpatch is designed to work with any recent Linux
-kernel on any distribution, these quick start instructions
-currently only work on Fedora.
+kernel on any distribution, the "kpatch build" command currently
+only works on Fedora.
 
 First make a patch against the kernel tree, e.g. foo.patch.
 Then:
 
-    sudo kpatch-build/kpatch-build ~/foo.patch
-    insmod kpatch.ko kpatch-foo.ko
+    sudo /usr/local/sbin/kpatch build foo.patch
+    sudo insmod kpatch.ko kpatch-foo.ko
 
 Voila, your kernel is patched.
 
+
 LICENSE
 
 kpatch is under the GPLv2 license.
diff --git a/kmod/Makefile b/kmod/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ff48cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kmod/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+include ../Makefile.inc
+
+all:
+
+install:
+	$(INSTALL) -d $(DATADIR)/core
+	$(INSTALL) -m 644 core/* $(DATADIR)/core
+	$(INSTALL) -d $(DATADIR)/patch
+	$(INSTALL) -m 644 patch/* $(DATADIR)/patch
+
+clean:
diff --git a/kmod/core/Makefile b/kmod/core/Makefile
index ac83fe4..9a2a411 100644
--- a/kmod/core/Makefile
+++ b/kmod/core/Makefile
@@ -1,9 +1,7 @@
+# make rules
 KPATCH_BUILD ?= /usr/lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build
 KPATCH_MAKE = $(MAKE) -C $(KPATCH_BUILD) M=$(PWD)
 
-obj-m := kpatch.o
-kpatch-y := core.o trampoline.o
-
 kpatch.ko: core.c trampoline.S
 	$(KPATCH_MAKE) kpatch.ko
 
@@ -12,3 +10,8 @@ all: kpatch.ko
 clean:
 	$(RM) -Rf .*.o.cmd .*.ko.cmd .tmp_versions *.o *.ko *.mod.c \
 	Module.symvers
+
+
+# kbuild rules
+obj-m := kpatch.o
+kpatch-y := core.o trampoline.o
diff --git a/kpatch-build/Makefile b/kpatch-build/Makefile
index de0f15f..8235e53 100644
--- a/kpatch-build/Makefile
+++ b/kpatch-build/Makefile
@@ -1,15 +1,19 @@
-CFLAGS=-I../kmod/core
+include ../Makefile.inc
 
-all: create-diff-object add-patches-section link-vmlinux-syms
+CFLAGS  = -I../kmod/core
+LDFLAGS = -lelf
 
-create-diff-object: create-diff-object.c
-	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $^ -lelf
+TARGETS = create-diff-object add-patches-section link-vmlinux-syms
 
-add-patches-section: add-patches-section.c
-	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $^ -lelf
 
-link-vmlinux-syms: link-vmlinux-syms.c
-	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $@ $^ -lelf
+all: $(TARGETS)
+
+%: %.c
+	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $^ -o $@ $(LDFLAGS)
+
+install: all
+	$(INSTALL) -d $(LIBEXECDIR)
+	$(INSTALL) $(TARGETS) kpatch-build $(LIBEXECDIR)
 
 clean:
-	$(RM) -Rf create-diff-object add-patches-section link-vmlinux-syms
+	$(RM) $(TARGETS)
diff --git a/kpatch-build/kpatch-build b/kpatch-build/kpatch-build
index deac711..f504cba 100755
--- a/kpatch-build/kpatch-build
+++ b/kpatch-build/kpatch-build
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@
 
 BASE=$PWD
 LOGFILE=$PWD/kpatch-build.log
-TOOLSDIR=$BASE/kpatch-build
+TOOLSDIR=/usr/local/libexec/kpatch
+DATADIR=/usr/local/share/kpatch
 ARCHVERSION=$(uname -r)
 DISTROVERSION=${ARCHVERSION%*.*}
 CPUS=$(grep -c ^processor /proc/cpuinfo)
@@ -39,8 +40,8 @@ cleanup() {
 }
 
 die() {
-	echo "kpatch encountered an error"
-	echo "check kpatch-build.log"
+	echo "ERROR: kpatch build failed"
+	echo "check kpatch-build.log for more details"
 	exit 1
 }
 
@@ -65,9 +66,6 @@ fi
 
 cleanup
 
-echo "Building tools"
-make -C $TOOLSDIR >> $LOGFILE 2>&1 || die
-
 TEMPDIR=`mktemp -d` || die
 
 if [ -f "$KSRCDIR_CACHE" ]
@@ -103,7 +101,7 @@ else
 	tar czf $KSRCDIR_CACHE -C $KSRCDIR_DIR $ARCHVERSION
 fi
 
-cp -R $BASE/kmod/patch/* $BASE/kmod/core $TEMPDIR || die
+cp -R $DATADIR/core $DATADIR/patch $TEMPDIR || die
 cp vmlinux $TEMPDIR || die
 
 echo "Building patched kernel"
@@ -153,12 +151,13 @@ KPATCH_BUILD=$KSRCDIR make >> $LOGFILE 2>&1 || die
 cd ..
 
 echo "Building patch module: kpatch-$PATCHNAME.ko"
-ld -r -o output.o output/* >> $LOGFILE 2>&1 || die
-$TOOLSDIR/add-patches-section output.o vmlinux >> $LOGFILE 2>&1 || die
+cd patch
+ld -r -o output.o ../output/* >> $LOGFILE 2>&1 || die
+$TOOLSDIR/add-patches-section output.o ../vmlinux >> $LOGFILE 2>&1 || die
 KPATCH_BASEDIR=$TEMPDIR/core KPATCH_BUILD=$KSRCDIR KPATCH_NAME=$PATCHNAME make >> $LOGFILE 2>&1 || die
 strip -d kpatch-$PATCHNAME.ko >> $LOGFILE 2>&1 || die
-$TOOLSDIR/link-vmlinux-syms kpatch-$PATCHNAME.ko vmlinux >> $LOGFILE 2>&1 || die
+$TOOLSDIR/link-vmlinux-syms kpatch-$PATCHNAME.ko ../vmlinux >> $LOGFILE 2>&1 || die
 
 echo "SUCCESS"
-cp -f $TEMPDIR/kpatch-$PATCHNAME.ko $TEMPDIR/core/kpatch.ko $BASE
+cp -f $TEMPDIR/patch/kpatch-$PATCHNAME.ko $TEMPDIR/core/kpatch.ko $BASE
 cleanup
diff --git a/kpatch/Makefile b/kpatch/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2e345c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kpatch/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+include ../Makefile.inc
+
+all:
+
+install: all
+	$(INSTALL) -d $(SBINDIR)
+	$(INSTALL) kpatch $(SBINDIR)
+
+clean:
diff --git a/kpatch/kpatch b/kpatch/kpatch
index 6fcb06a..4340184 100755
--- a/kpatch/kpatch
+++ b/kpatch/kpatch
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 KERNELRELEASE=$(uname -r)
 VARDIR=/var/lib/kpatch/$KERNELRELEASE
 USRDIR=/usr/lib/kpatch/$KERNELRELEASE
+TOOLSDIR=/usr/local/libexec/kpatch
 
 usage () {
 	echo "usage:"
@@ -27,6 +28,7 @@ usage () {
 	echo "kpatch unload [--all | MODULE]"
 	echo "kpatch list"
 	echo "kpatch info MODULE"
+	echo "kpatch build PATCH"
 	exit 1
 }
 
@@ -172,6 +174,11 @@ case $1 in
 	echo "Hotfix information for ${2%.*}:"
 	modinfo $DIR/available/$MODFILE
 	;;
+"build")
+	[ $# -ne 2 ] && usage
+	$TOOLSDIR/kpatch-build $2
+	[ $? -ne 0 ] && exit 3
+	;;
 *)
 	echo "subcommand $1 not recognized"
 	usage