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Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2014 08:07:57 +0400
From: "(GalaxyMaster)" <galaxy@...nwall.com>
To: owl-dev@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: absolute() in /etc/init.d/functions is unreliable

All,

In /etc/init.d/functions we have a defined subroutine called absolute().
The purpose of that subroutine is to return the absolute path of the
provided executable.  However, 'type -afp <file>' behaves unreliably if
the PATH system variable contains a directory where <file> resides
twice:
===
$ echo "$PATH"
/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin
$ type -afp file
/usr/bin/file
$ export PATH="/usr/bin:$PATH"
$ echo "$PATH"
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin
$ type -afp file
/usr/bin/file
/usr/bin/file
$
===

My initial thought was to remove -a from the type command (this way it
just returns the first match), but -a also ensures that type is not
using hashed paths (i.e. cached values).

I stumbled upon this multiple times when I was installing 3rd party
services.  

I'm not sure how to fix this issue properly, but was wondering why we
are implementing a substitute for which(1) that we are providing with
Owl?  Maybe the absolute() subroutine should be enhanced in such a way
that it uses which(1) if it is in PATH, but fallback to type otherwise?

-- 
(GM)

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