From: primehalo@... (Ken Innes)
Date: 2004-11-09T08:23:33+09:00
Subject: ENV["PATH"] is being overwritten (in Ruby 1.4.6)

I'm having a weird problem where accessing the PATH environment
variable overwrites it with a different path. As an example:

     /scripts/script1.rb:
          #!/usr/bin/ruby
          puts `env | grep PATH`
          puts ENV["PATH"]
          puts `/usr/bin/env | grep PATH`

     Command Line:
          [testing]% script1.rb
          /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:.:/scripts
          /bin:/usr
          PATH=/bin:/usr
          [testing]%

I have to put the full path for "env" the second time otherwise I'd
get "sh: env: command not found". And I don't know where the "/usr"
directory comes from. I've searched all the files in my home
directory, and don't see it setting just "/usr" to the path anywhere.
I also searched through the files in the Ruby directory and never see
a "/usr" by itself.

This is a project that I inherited which uses Ruby 1.4.6 on a RedHat
Linux 6.1J. I copied it onto my RedHat Linux 6.1J machine, and
upgraded Ruby to fix the problem. Unfortunately, the scripts are not
quite compatible with the updated Ruby, so I had to revert to the
version that was originally used.