diff --git a/debian/scrapyd.postinst b/debian/scrapyd.postinst
index 7bd29260d..98e6dab1d 100644
--- a/debian/scrapyd.postinst
+++ b/debian/scrapyd.postinst
@@ -10,12 +10,8 @@ case "$1" in
                   --no-create-home --disabled-password \
                   --quiet scrapy || true
         fi
-        if [ ! -d /var/run/scrapyd ]; then
-          mkdir /var/run/scrapyd
-          chown scrapy:nogroup /var/run/scrapyd
-        fi
 
-        chown scrapy:nogroup /var/log/scrapyd /var/run/scrapyd \
+        chown scrapy:nogroup /var/log/scrapyd \
             /var/lib/scrapyd /var/lib/scrapyd/eggs /var/lib/scrapyd/dbs
 
         update-python-modules -p # so upstart restart uses the new code
diff --git a/debian/scrapyd.postrm b/debian/scrapyd.postrm
index 92d6fcf08..5f114be46 100644
--- a/debian/scrapyd.postrm
+++ b/debian/scrapyd.postrm
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ if [ purge = "$1" ]; then
   else
      echo >&2 "not removing scrapy system account because deluser command was not found"
   fi
-  rm -rf /var/run/scrapyd
 fi
 
 #DEBHELPER#
diff --git a/debian/scrapyd.upstart b/debian/scrapyd.upstart
index cc6578c54..9b9204137 100644
--- a/debian/scrapyd.upstart
+++ b/debian/scrapyd.upstart
@@ -8,6 +8,6 @@ script
     logdir=/var/log/scrapyd
     exec twistd -ny /usr/share/scrapyd/scrapyd.tac \
                 -u scrapy -g nogroup \
-                --pidfile /var/run/scrapyd/scrapy.pid \
+                --pidfile /var/run/scrapy.pid \
                 -l $logdir/scrapyd.log >$logdir/scrapyd.out 2>$logdir/scrapyd.err
 end script