Installing a .deb package in home directory

It depends what you mean by "install". It is possible to extract the file contents of a .deb file using dpkg-deb -x <filename.deb>, but whether you can actually use the software after extracting it locally depends on how it is written. A lot of Linux software will be expecting to find its resource files in standard locations specified at compile-time, such as /usr/share or /usr/lib, which will fail if the software is not installed in the usual location. Also any system-wide configuration files installed by the package, such as .desktop files that create entries in the start menu, will not function as intended if installed in the wrong location.

Thanks for all your comments an answers. It was a self-packaged piece of software where I would like to make some basic checks if my packaging was correct. I am root on my computer but wouldn't like to do a real installation there nor want to use a virtual image for the moment. I came up with this solution: https://serverfault.com/questions/23734/is-there-any-way-to-get-apt-to-install-packages-to-my-home-directory Which perfectly works for me atm.

Note that use of the Debian package system requires root access. So, installing a deb package in a users home directory requires root access. If you have root access, then makes more sense to just install into the system as normal.

If you don't have root access, you can't use the Debian packaging system. You could certainly unpack a deb file into its component pieces and stick it in your home directory, but doing so would make little sense imo. I suggest you go with a local install. Depending on what software you are installing,the software may have some sort of internal package management system you can use.