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Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 14:02:24 +1000
From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Message-Id: <199709030402.OAA28504@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
To: bugs@freebsd.org
Subject: bogus and inconsistent default $PATH's
Sender: owner-freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

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.

Bruce