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From: bob@wyse.wyse.com (Bob McGowen x4312 dept208)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Dot in PATH?
Message-ID: <3109@wyse.wyse.com>
Date: 2 Feb 91 00:16:25 GMT
References: <1991Jan24.203423.25084@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991Jan24.221552.5906@bradley.bradley.edu> <5528@auspex.auspex.com> <1991Jan28.003846.25111@bradley.bradley.edu>
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Reply-To: bob@wyse.UUCP (Bob McGowen x4312 dept208)
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In article <1991Jan28.003846.25111@bradley.bradley.edu> data@buhub (Mark Hall) writes:
>In <5528@auspex.auspex.com> guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) writes:
>

deleted discussion of exec()...

>in my .profile is this path command:
>
>> PATH=:/usr/lbin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:$HOME:$HOME/BIN:$HOME/USR:/usr/tmp:/tmp:/tmp/talk:
>
>if I run a program in the current directory (and it's not in my path command)
>my shell looks in the current directory FIRST.  This is also the way MS-DOS

deleted discussion...

PATH=:/usr/lbin...<rest of path deleted>
    ^^
This is a null path entry which defautlt to dot.  You can have null
entries anywhere by either placing two colons together (::) or placing
a single colon at the beginning (as you did) or at the end.

A path with no null entries WILL NOT search the current directory:

PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/ucb

This path will search the three directories named and nothing else.

Bob McGowan  (standard disclaimer, these are my own ...)
Product Support, Wyse Technology, San Jose, CA
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