From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Paul Smith Newsgroups: gmane.lisp.guile.user Subject: Re: How to get the preferred environment variable path separator? Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2016 11:36:31 -0400 Message-ID: <1459179391.6683.64.camel@mad-scientist.net> References: <8760w7juus.fsf@gmail.com> <87oa9yapm2.fsf@gmail.com> <87shzalnq0.fsf@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1459184627 4153 80.91.229.3 (28 Mar 2016 17:03:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2016 17:03:47 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Guile User , Chris Marusich To: "Thompson, David" , Alex Vong Original-X-From: guile-user-bounces+guile-user=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Mar 28 19:03:34 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: guile-user@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1akaZi-0005op-3k for guile-user@m.gmane.org; Mon, 28 Mar 2016 19:03:34 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:41825 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1akaZh-0008K0-3g for guile-user@m.gmane.org; Mon, 28 Mar 2016 13:03:33 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:49434) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1akZDz-0000Es-8W for guile-user@gnu.org; Mon, 28 Mar 2016 11:37:08 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1akZDv-0003UR-88 for guile-user@gnu.org; Mon, 28 Mar 2016 11:37:03 -0400 Original-Received: from gproxy9-pub.mail.unifiedlayer.com ([69.89.20.122]:33818) by eggs.gnu.org with smtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1akZDu-0003PN-Aj for guile-user@gnu.org; Mon, 28 Mar 2016 11:36:59 -0400 Original-Received: (qmail 7912 invoked by uid 0); 28 Mar 2016 15:36:49 -0000 Original-Received: from unknown (HELO cmgw3) (10.0.90.84) by gproxy9.mail.unifiedlayer.com with SMTP; 28 Mar 2016 15:36:49 -0000 Original-Received: from box531.bluehost.com ([74.220.219.131]) by cmgw3 with id bacc1s0172qhmhE01acfQ8; Mon, 28 Mar 2016 16:36:45 -0600 X-Authority-Analysis: v=2.1 cv=Maz/5fPf c=1 sm=1 tr=0 a=GcR8MKwCKDX7fzHfRD/fNg==:117 a=GcR8MKwCKDX7fzHfRD/fNg==:17 a=L9H7d07YOLsA:10 a=9cW_t1CCXrUA:10 a=s5jvgZ67dGcA:10 a=IkcTkHD0fZMA:10 a=cdVwids0oJMA:10 a=zNFNcrI55QAA:10 a=7OsogOcEt9IA:10 a=ObfcnuHrKG6-UaxcF1QA:9 a=QEXdDO2ut3YA:10 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=mad-scientist.net; s=default; h=Content-Transfer-Encoding:Mime-Version: Content-Type:References:In-Reply-To:Date:Cc:To:From:Subject:Message-ID; bh=uMVhG/BrylDnOmmol7ECK41fsiVNl3V+n4HojH4Lblc=; b=hItrIXNgXp8D7fTNFGt5wtyop2 lQdvfGC261w+mJ8N6gsBmd0IKp+PRWm+qvPWTsWr64uE6qd26USAsgKGON8s3MKKjGxbVa4x1xxvY mXyvam67qqIy91sKZFq36Rcqj; Original-Received: from [64.238.138.90] (port=43966 helo=pdsdesk) by box531.bluehost.com with esmtpsa (TLSv1.2:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:128) (Exim 4.86_2) (envelope-from ) id 1akZDb-0001qj-JQ; Mon, 28 Mar 2016 09:36:39 -0600 In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: Evolution 3.16.5-1ubuntu3.1 X-Identified-User: {678:box531.bluehost.com:madscie1:mad-scientist.us} {sentby:smtp auth 64.238.138.90 authed with paul@mad-scientist.us} X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x X-Received-From: 69.89.20.122 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Mon, 28 Mar 2016 13:03:25 -0400 X-BeenThere: guile-user@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: General Guile related discussions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guile-user-bounces+guile-user=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: guile-user-bounces+guile-user=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.lisp.guile.user:12511 Archived-At: On Mon, 2016-03-28 at 10:24 -0400, Thompson, David wrote: > The environment variable path separator is *not* defined depending on > the OS. It is up to the programs that interpret these search paths > to specify what the separator should be. ":" is the most common > separator, but that is just convention. A search path is opaque to > the operating system, where environment variables are just strings > with no inherent meaning. I think this is too simple an answer. In fact, the operating system DOES parse the PATH variable (for example on UNIX systems to implement some of the exec() family of functions). And on Windows, using ";" as a separator is a requirement of the operating system as well.