Pip installs to unexpected place

I am using *Python 3.13* in a virtual environment under *Ubuntu Linux 24.04*
.
The version of Python was compiled from source code and installed with make
altinstall. I attempted to use *pip* to install the *Sphinx* package into
the virtual environment using the command *pip install sphinx* in the
virtual environment*.* I expected that *sphinx* would be installed in the
*site-packages* directory in the virtual environment. Instead, it was
installed into the site-packages directory in
*/home/jonathan/.locals/lib/python3.13/site-packages* even though I did not
specify *--user* to the *pip install* command. Is this expected behavior? I
wanted Sphinx to be installed in the virtual environment so that it would
be accessible to all users of the virtual environment.


--
Jonathan Gossage