[Pkg-zsh-devel] Why does debian/zshenv handle $PATH as it does? I'd like to fix^W^W^Wchange that.

[Axel Beckert]

Hi Clint,

yet another question about the history of Debian's zsh package. :-)

debian/zshenv currently contains the following code:

if [[ -z "$PATH" || "$PATH" == "/bin:/usr/bin" ]]
then
        export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/games"
fi

As nowadays, $PATH is set in login.defs and the admin should not need
to (but of course be allowed to) edit it at more than one place, I
tried to understand the logic of the above mentioned legacy code:

If $PATH is empty, it's probably a good idea so set some sane path.

But why changing the path to "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/games"
if and only if it has been set beforehand to "/bin:/usr/bin"?

And why only for "/bin:/usr/bin", but not if it is set to e.g.
"/usr/bin:/bin"? (Which would be the same two directories, just with a
different order.)

Anyway, from what I gathered so far, I propose to remove the '||
"$PATH" == "/bin:/usr/bin"' part of Debian's zshenv. I don't expect
any breakage.

Do you think otherwise?
Do you have any objections against removing that part?

		Regards, Axel
-- 
 ,''`.  |  Axel Beckert <abe at debian.org>, http://people.debian.org/~abe/
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