Re: path PATH

[Ray Andrews <rayandrews@eastlink.ca>]

On 2023-01-21 09:01, Roman Perepelitsa wrote:
>
>> 3 /aWorking/Zsh/Source/Wk 1 $ set | grep  "^PATH"
>> PATH=.:/aWorking/Zsh/System:/aWorking/Bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
>>
>> 3 /aWorking/Zsh/Source/Wk 1 $ typeset -p PATH
>> export -T PATH path=( . /aWorking/Zsh/System /aWorking/Bin
>> /usr/local/bin /usr/sbin /usr/bin )
> Can you elaborate? Do you believe that these two commands should have
> identical output?
Yes.  Both would seem to be displaying values.  And in every case except 
PATH, that is exactly what happens.
>
> Does it bother you that in the following snippet the last two commands
> also don't have identical output?
>
>      % export -i8 BAR=42
>
>      % typeset -p BAR
>      export -i8 BAR=42
>
>      % env | grep BAR
>      BAR=8#52
>
> These are different commands and they have different output. Neither
> shows the "true" or "real" value of the parameter. `typeset -p` shows
> exactly and precisely what a zsh parameter is, while `env` shows the
> environment.

That's a bit Byzantine isn't it?  If 'env' displays the base of the 
number whereas typeset displays the command by which the base was 
forced, no I don't think that's a genuine comparison.  It's nothing the 
same as PATH displaying with spaces when in fact it has colons.  In your 
example one clearly anticipates the other; it's actually the same 
information just formatted differently.

Bart:

 > The definition of a tied parameter is that one of the pair is a 
scalar string with an internal delimiter defaulting to a colon, and the 
other is an array of the delimited values.  There's nothing magic about 
PATH in this respect.

Ah!  So now we're barking up the same tree.  But ... all the other tied 
parameters look like merely the same array with two different names.  
Have I made the wrong pattern?

...

Yes, I have:  set | grep FPATH  ... and what do I see but colons!

NUTS!  All the others, there's only one element so there's no chance for 
the colons to show up :(  they define as arrays, but there's actually 
just the one element so that's where I lost the scent.  I get it.  Many 
thanks.  So PATH is indeed unique but it isn't special :)