MANIFEST    |  1 +
 Makefile.PL | 11 +++++++++++
 lei.sh      |  7 +++++++

diff --git a/MANIFEST b/MANIFEST
index 1834e7bb0e510772f2c33172222d8d8494673224..e2d4ef72302613f3049fc5a005b3137c93d72476 100644
--- a/MANIFEST
+++ b/MANIFEST
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ examples/unsubscribe-psgi@.service
 examples/unsubscribe.milter
 examples/unsubscribe.psgi
 examples/varnish-4.vcl
+lei.sh
 lib/PublicInbox/Address.pm
 lib/PublicInbox/AddressPP.pm
 lib/PublicInbox/Admin.pm
diff --git a/Makefile.PL b/Makefile.PL
index 57592378c76d554cda85daa343250a02f25bedb4..924e8dfd2b00cd4064247e23437699413a367717 100644
--- a/Makefile.PL
+++ b/Makefile.PL
@@ -223,5 +223,16 @@ Makefile.PL : MANIFEST
 	touch -r MANIFEST \$@
 	\$(PERLRUN) \$@
 
+# Install symlinks to ~/bin (which is hopefuly in PATH) which point to
+# this source tree.
+# prefix + bindir matches git.git Makefile:
+prefix = \$(HOME)
+bindir = \$(prefix)/bin
+symlink-install :
+	mkdir -p \$(bindir)
+	lei=\$\$(realpath lei.sh) && cd \$(bindir) && \\
+	for x in \$(EXE_FILES); do \\
+		ln -sf "\$\$lei" \$\$(basename "\$\$x"); \\
+	done
 EOF
 }
diff --git a/lei.sh b/lei.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f1510a731c09ad8cb3ac891ba858a6034a0fcd99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lei.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+#!/bin/sh -e
+# symlink this file to a directory in PATH to run lei (or anything in script/*)
+# without needing perms to install globally.  Used by "make symlink-install"
+p=$(realpath "$0" || readlink "$0") # neither is POSIX, but common
+p=$(dirname "$p") c=$(basename "$0") # both are POSIX
+exec ${PERL-perl} -w -I"$p"/lib "$p"/script/"${c%.sh}" "$@"
+: this script is too short to copyright