Xref: utzoo comp.unix.xenix:2432 comp.unix.questions:7478
Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!scs!spl1!laidbak!att!ulysses!hector!ekrell
From: ekrell@hector.UUCP (Eduardo Krell)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: "cd path" strangeness
Message-ID: <10352@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com>
Date: 5 Jun 88 01:01:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: ulysses.10352
References: <337@vector.UUCP>
Sender: netnews@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com
Reply-To: ekrell@hector (Eduardo Krell)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 19

In article <337@vector.UUCP> chip@vector.UUCP (Chip Rosenthal) writes:

>Here is a wierd one.  In csh, move to some directory which doesn't have
>a "path" subdirectory.  Then type either "cd path" or "chdir path".

>The expected response would be "path: No such file or directory."  Instead,
>no message is issued, and either you stay where you were or you move to
>$path[1].  This behavior is independant of the definition of "cdpath" (or
>lack of definition).

This is documented in the man page for csh (at least in 4.3 BSD).
When everything else fails, cd checks to see whether there's an environment
variable whose name is the same as the argument you typed. If the
value of that variable is a string and starts with a "/", then it
takes that as the directory to cd to.
    
    Eduardo Krell                   AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ

    UUCP: {ihnp4,ucbvax}!ulysses!ekrell		ARPA: ekrell@ulysses.att.com