Package: base-files Version: 12.4 Followup-For: Bug #1039979 Debian policy "9.1.1. File System Structure" https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-opersys.html#file-system-structure states:
"8. /var/run is required to be a symbolic link to /run, and /var/lock is required to be a symbolic link to /run/lock." Additional clarification is provided in https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-files.html#id24 "This is necessary to allow top-level directories to be symlinks. If linking /var/run to /run were done with the relative symbolic link ../run, but /var were a symbolic link to /srv/disk1, the symbolic link would point to /srv/run rather than the intended target." That part of the policy is certainly out of date with modern practices, where bind mounts and other solutions are commonplace and provide a much better solution to the described problem. For this bugreport to be fixed, it would require changing those parts of debian policy. However, the question is whether this is something against the letter of the policy but not against the spirit of the policy. My interpretation of the policy is that /var/run should end up pointing at the location of /run and it would be satisfied through relative symlinks too. Same for /var/lock
