New comment by loreb on void-packages repository https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/issues/18777#issuecomment-585884449 Comment: TLDR: imho the speedup is not worth the confusion, but worth adding a comment ("not having these in $PATH would confuse most people" or "these are not needed in void") either way just in case. A script that runs a command many times - successfully: ``` #! /bin/sh for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ; do cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null; cat /dev/null done ``` To test non existing commands: ``` #! /bin/sh foo&&exit 123 # must NOT be in $PATH for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ; do foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo; foo done ``` On my computer the first is just as fast even if we replace the first few entries of path with something bogus - PATH=/usr/local/nibs:/usr/local/nib/...:/usr/bin The second script is indeed almost 3x slower when run with the full path instead of PATH=/usr/bin, but we are talking 0.05s vs 0.13s when we call a nonexisting command 3000 times. All of that on a cheap laptop from 2015 without an SSD btw - does anyone have different numbers?