Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!gwyn From: gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn) Newsgroups: net.bugs.usg Subject: Re: PATH bug? Message-ID: <546@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Thu, 8-Aug-85 18:48:11 EDT Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.546 Posted: Thu Aug 8 18:48:11 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 11-Aug-85 07:27:07 EDT References: <807@plus5.UUCP> <5857@utzoo.UUCP> <2563@sun.uucp> Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 21 > For those without a) post-V7 documentation for the Bourne shell or b) the > patience to try to find it, the magic sentence is: > > Execution > ...Note that the current directory is specified by a > null path name, which can appear immediately after the > equal sign or *between the colon delimiters* anywhere > else in the path list. > > The italicized phrase is the obscure clue. Yeah, but the manual entry is just documenting the bug, not justifying it. PATH=/bin:/usr/bin names TWO directories, not ONE. There seems to be no good reason why the null path (current directory) shouldn't be treated the same as every other entry in the colonized ( :-) ) string. In fact, I think I'll fix this in the BRL Bourne shell tonight. I hate bugs; especially I hate hearing them called features! This is a particularly obnoxious bug, since to avoid tripping over land mines planted by mischievous turkeys, one wants to search the current directory LAST, and this is just where the bug bites.