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From: wcs@skep2.ATT.COM (Bill.Stewart.<ho95c>)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: "Proper" use of PATH and directory "purity"
Message-ID: <85@skep2.ATT.COM>
Date: 29 Apr 88 02:46:27 GMT
References: <10580@steinmetz.ge.com>
Reply-To: wcs@skep2.UUCP (46323-Bill.Stewart.<ho95c>,2G218,x0705,)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs Center 4632, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 24
Keywords: Folklore, Documentation, PATH

In article <10580@steinmetz.ge.com> dawn!stpeters@steinmetz.UUCP (Dick St.Peters) writes:
> A new UNIX user has written a program that looks for its
> configuration file by searching the directories in PATH.
> I can't convince him this is bad practice, because I can't
> point to any documentation.  
......
> I don't want our software distribution to introduce poor practices
> like putting non-executeable files in bin directories and/or
> putting extraneous places into PATH.


Actually, it's a great practice.  You might want to modify it by
using some other variable such as FILEPATH instead of PATH,
but it gives you the same kinds of flexibility you get with PATH -
not needing to know where something is to use it, not needing to
explicitly specify things when defaults are good, letting files be
in multiple directories, e.g.
	FILEPATH=$HOME/dbfiles:/usr/local/lib/dbfiles:.:
so custom versions will override the defaults.
-- 
#				Thanks;
# Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 2G218, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs
# skep2 is a local machine I'm trying to turn into a server.  Please send
# mail to ho95c or ho95e instead.  Thanks.