As title suggested, I haven't been able to find a good way to install aws-cli (https://github.com/aws/aws-cli/) without having the root access (or equivalent of sudo privileges).
The way Homebrew setup on Mac is hinting at it may be possible, provided that a few directories and permissions are set in a way to facility future installs. However, I have yet to find any approach in Linux (specially, Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS distroes).
I am also aware of SCL from RHEL (https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Developer_Guide/scl-utils.html) But again, it requires sudo.
There's a bundled installer for that purpose.
Install aws command to $HOME/bin
wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-cli/awscli-bundle.zip
unzip awscli-bundle.zip
./awscli-bundle/install -b ~/bin/aws
Set $PATH environment variable
echo $PATH | grep ~/bin // See if $PATH contains ~/bin (output will be empty if it doesn't)
export PATH=~/bin:$PATH // Add ~/bin to $PATH if necessary
Test the AWS CLI Installation
aws help
See the following link for details: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/awscli-install-bundle.html#install-bundle-user