Compiling the Kernel and other applications

Hi, I wonder, if compiling Kernel and other application, we've got the same environement, I mean location of exec files and so on, like the delivered distribution is made. I've tried several weeks ago to get the Apache stuff on the Official, and the new version compiled fine. But concerning the location, as I didn't change the defaults, le server was not installed into the same directory. Otherwise, how could I get informed of how SuSE compile their software, to get latest rpm ? Or should I always have to get the rpm from SuSe to get rid of this ? Thanks for your reply Pascal MiQUET