Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Dot in PATH?
Message-ID: <5528@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 25 Jan 91 18:54:33 GMT
References: <1991Jan24.203423.25084@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991Jan24.221552.5906@bradley.bradley.edu>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 14

>Jeff, why would you want to do this?  I thought Un*x automatically checked the
>directory that you are in (your current directory) for commands you entered.

You thought incorrectly; UNIX shells, and the "exec[lv]p()" routines,
check only if "." is in the current command search path.

In addition to the trojan horse problems mentioned in other postings,
note that the S5R2-and-later Bourne shell's mechanism for doing command
hashing is disabled (or ineffective), as I remember, for directories in
the path that follow a path entry of ".", so even if you do want "." in
your directory you may want to stick it at the end.  I forget whether
the same is true of the Korn shell's "tracked alias" mechanism, and
don't know what effect having "." anywhere other than at the end has on
the C shell's command hashing (although they may be hosed too).