How can $localstatedir be $prefix/var and at the same time $runstatedir be /var/run (notice no prefix) if it is defined as $localstatedir/run.
Because prefix is normally /usr, and it was/is common to use /usr/var for exactly that purpose. Where as runstatedir was in /var/run and not /usr. Since the FHS doesn't define /usr/local/var, and my Debian system lacks it, and I don't think people are going to start symlinking /usr/local/var to /var, I guess the coding standard really intended to define $localstatedir as /var. Yes, and no. On GNU/Linux, it was meant to be /usr/var (prefix = "/usr"), on GNU systems it was meant to be /var (prefix = "") If you want to do this on other systems, the best way is to setup a config.site file where you specify the locations explisltly. The bug is also present in the GNU Make documentation, which seems to be just a copy of the GNU coding standards. This isn't a bug, it works as intended.
