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To: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
cc: bugs@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: bogus and inconsistent default $PATH's 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 03 Sep 1997 14:02:24 +1000."
             <199709030402.OAA28504@godzilla.zeta.org.au> 
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Date: Wed, 03 Sep 1997 07:21:30 +0100
From: Brian Somers <brian@awfulhak.org>
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> exec.3 claims that the default $PATH for execlp() and execvp()
> was changed from ":/bin:/usr/bin" to "/bin:/usr/bin:" to enhance
> system security.  It was actually changed to "/usr/bin:/bin"
> before FreeBSD-1.0 was released (see <paths.h>).  Why was the
> order of /bin and /usr/bin reversed?
> 
> /bin/sh doesn't actually use the default $PATH.  It hard-codes
> "/bin:/usr/bin".
> 
> /bin/csh doesn't actually use the default $PATH.  It uses its
> own pathnames.h with macros for "/bin" and "/usr/bin" in it
> and builds up the path using the expanded macros.
> 
> The default $PATH is set by login, so the [c]sh default is usually
> not used.

IMHO, they should all use login_getpath(..., "path", ...).  This 
function should default to whatever (/bin:/usr/bin or /usr/bin:/bin).

> Bruce

-- 
Brian <brian@awfulhak.org>, <brian@freebsd.org>
      <http://www.awfulhak.org>
Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour....