Package: debian-policy Version: 3.9.2.0 Severity: minor The wording of section 10.5, where it says whether symlinks should be absolute or relative, is not particularly clear if the symlink is to a top-level file or directory rather than into one (such as a link from /var/run to /run). The intent was to require that these be absolute links so that, were /var a symlink to some other location, the /var/run symlink would still work properly.
The rationale should be mentioned in a non-normative footnote. Carsten Hey suggests: As already mentioned, I don't think the wording of §10.5 strictly applies to the /run symlink. "lib64 -> /lib" also somehow involves different top-level directories, but (contrary to the /run symlink), the reason why §10.5 is in the policy does not apply to it. To match the original intention more closely and to clarify §10.5, | symbolic links pointing from one top-level directory into another | should be absolute could be written as ("out of" was stolen from [1]): | symbolic links pointing out of a top-level directory should be | absolute or alternatively as: | symbolic links pointing from one top-level directory out of it should | be absolute -- System Information: Debian Release: wheezy/sid APT prefers testing APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: i386 (i686) Kernel: Linux 2.6.38-2-686-bigmem (SMP w/4 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash debian-policy depends on no packages. debian-policy recommends no packages. Versions of packages debian-policy suggests: ii doc-base 0.10.1 utilities to manage online documen -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-policy-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110511040235.18482.17337.report...@windlord.stanford.edu