Russ Allbery <r...@debian.org> writes:
> 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.
I've applied the following informative change to make this clearer. (Yes,
Policy allows top-level directories to be symlinks but not substantial
second-level directories like /usr/share, but that's a different
discussion.)
diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 4aeae36..bfb7cf5 100644
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -7917,11 +7917,23 @@ fname () {
<heading>Symbolic links</heading>
<p>
- In general, symbolic links within a top-level directory
- should be relative, and symbolic links pointing from one
- top-level directory into another should be absolute. (A
- top-level directory is a sub-directory of the root
- directory <file>/</file>.)
+ In general, symbolic links within a top-level directory should
+ be relative, and symbolic links pointing from one top-level
+ directory to or into another should be absolute. (A top-level
+ directory is a sub-directory of the root
+ directory <file>/</file>.) For example, a symbolic link
+ from <file>/usr/lib/foo</file> to <file>/usr/share/bar</file>
+ should be relative (<file>../share/bar</file>), but a symbolic
+ link from <file>/var/run</file> to <file>/run</file> should be
+ absolute.<footnote>
+ This is necessary to allow top-level directories to be
+ symlinks. If linking <file>/var/run</file>
+ to <file>/run</file> were done with the relative symbolic
+ link <file>../run</file>, but <file>/var</file> were a
+ symbolic link to <file>/srv/disk1</file>, the symbolic link
+ would point to <file>/srv/run</file> rather than the intended
+ target.
+ </footnote>
</p>
<p>
--
Russ Allbery (r...@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
--
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/8739c86033....@windlord.stanford.edu
