1ENVPATH(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation ENVPATH(1)
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6 envpath - Advanced operations on path variables
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9 Run this script with the "-help" option for usage details.
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12 Parses the command line, modifies the specified path variable(s), and
13 execs the remaining arguments. There are two modes, simple and
14 advanced:
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16 SIMPLE MODE
17 Simple mode presents an alternative, platform-independent syntax for
18 specifying paths wherein the path separator is "," and environment
19 variables can be expanded with @NAME@. For example
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21 envpath PATH=@PATH@,/usr/ucb -- printenv PATH
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23 appends "/usr/ucb" to $PATH and execs printenv PATH. The "--" is
24 optional.
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26 You can also specify prepending or appending by using "+=" or "=+"
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29 # place /usr/ucb at the front
30 envpath PATH+=/usr/ucb -- printenv PATH
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32 # place /usr/ucb at the back
33 envpath PATH=+/usr/ucb -- printenv PATH
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35 Simple mode requires only this script; it does not require Env::Path to
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38 ADVANCED MODE
39 Advanced mode basically provides command-line access to the features of
40 Env::Path (see), which must be installed. The "-E" flag selects the
41 path variable to operate on and other flags specify operations on it.
42 E.g.
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44 envpath -E MANPATH -A /tmp -R /usr/share/man -N -U -- man ...
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46 would take MANPATH, append /tmp to it, remove any references to
47 "/usr/share/man", remove any dirs which don't exist ("-N") and remove
48 redundant entries ("-U") before running man.
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50 The -Whence option allows patterns. Thus
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52 envpath -W "cat*"
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54 would find all programs on PATH which match cat*.
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57 A big part of the motivation for this script was for use with ClearCase
58 builds; iff you know or care about ClearCase read on. Typically, during
59 builds (and not just with ClearCase), pathvars such as PATH, CLASSPATH,
60 and LD_LIBRARY_PATH must be strictly controlled. One choice is to
61 force static values of these into the environment during the build
62 process, another is to simply require/expect users to set their paths
63 appropriately. Each of these can lead to subtle build or runtime
64 errors, however, and makes it hard for new users to get up to speed
65 since their personal environment must be just so.
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67 Another common choice is to use only full pathnames within the
68 Makefile, avoiding reliance on search paths at all. This is often the
69 best way to go but can suppress ClearCase winkins. For example, say
70 you're generating ascii files of some type with a binary executable you
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73 $(INCDIR)/foo.h: $(BINDIR)/foomaker $(BINDIR)/foomaker ...
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75 The problem with this is that $(BINDIR) likely contains a platform part
76 such as 'solaris' or 'hpux', which makes it impossible to wink in the
77 foo.h file on other platforms even though it's ascii. This same thing
78 could come up even with a standard pre-built utility that's in
79 different places on different platforms; "yacc", for instance, is in
80 /usr/bin on Linux and /usr/ccs/bin on Solaris.
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82 You could modify the path on the fly:
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84 $(INCDIR)/foo.h: $(BINDIR)/foomaker PATH=$(BINDIR)$(SEP)$$PATH
85 foomaker ...
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87 but this suffers from the same problem: since $(BINDIR) and $PATH are
88 expanded literally within the build script they'll suppress winkins.
89 Here's a solution using envpath:
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91 $(INCDIR)/foo.h: $(BINDIR)/foomaker envpath PATH=@BINDIR@,@PATH@
92 foomaker ...
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94 This hides the evaluation of BINDIR and PATH such that clearmake never
95 sees anything but the literals, thus clearing the field for winkins. Of
96 course envpath is capable of doing more than this, but it's the
97 original reason it was written.
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100 David Boyce <dsbperl AT boyski.com>
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103 Copyright (c) 2000-2001 David Boyce. All rights reserved. This Perl
104 program is free software; you may redistribute and/or modify it under
105 the same terms as Perl itself.
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108 perl(1), "perldoc Env::Path"
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112perl v5.32.1 2021-01-27 ENVPATH(1)