Comment 9 for bug 294277

No, you understand it right, the bug is also about /etc/tomcat6/Catalina and /etc/tomcat6/Catalina/localhost not being created (empty) by tomcat6 but only by the tomcat6 webapps, so if you don't install any webapp, then you can't use autodeploy.

However, the debdiff does create "/etc/tomcat6/Catalina/localhost" (in tomcat6.dirs) which results in the creation of both /etc/tomcat6/Catalina and /etc/tomcat6/Catalina/localhost ?