Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: <None>
Message-ID: <15318@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 25 Feb 91 17:07:47 GMT
References: <1991Feb22.004010.13359@zip.eecs.umich.edu> <15298@smoke.brl.mil> <15917.27c718d6@levels.sait.edu.au>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 9

In article <15917.27c718d6@levels.sait.edu.au> xtdn@levels.sait.edu.au writes:
>Which begs the question: why do many (most?) Unix's start their default PATH
>with ":"?  This is effectively the same as starting PATH with ".".

UNIX does not know about PATH; that is a function of a shell.
Most shells will supply a default PATH if one is not explicitly set.
Good shells allow the system administrator to ensure that an
appropriate local default is always set for login shells.
Good shells also have a reasonable default value for PATH.