Re: safe way to set a path

[Wichert Akkerman <wichert@wiggy.net>]

Previously Michael A. Miller wrote:
> # A function to add to PATH.  If it is already there, don't bother...
> add_to_path () {
>     if [ -d $1 ]; then 
> 	if [ ! `echo $PATH | grep $1` ]; then

That is wrong, it fails if what you want to add is a subset of an
existing path. For example considering PATH includes /usr/local/usr/bin and
you want to add /usr/bin.

A better approach would be to set IFS to : and loop over the PATH entries
and see if one matches with the directory you want to add.

Wichert.

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