GNU bug report logs - #41666
$INFOPATH should end with a colon

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jonas Bernoulli <jonas <at> bernoul.li>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: $INFOPATH should end with a colon
Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2020 19:44:17 +0200

On a foreign distro Guix installs /etc/profile.d/guix.sh, which among
other things adds the directory where it installs info pages to the
INFOPATH variable.

It takes care to not accidentally cause the value to end with a colon.
Unfortunately it should do the opposite because a trailing colon means
"... and also the default locations", which is highly desirable.

This is documented in (info "(texinfo)Other Info Directories"):

>    However you set 'INFOPATH', if its last character is a colon (on
> MS-DOS/MS-Windows systems, use a semicolon instead), this is replaced by
> the default (compiled-in) path.  This gives you a way to augment the
> default path with new directories without having to list all the
> standard places.  For example (using 'sh' syntax):
>
>      INFOPATH=/home/bob/info:
>      export INFOPATH
>
> will search '/home/bob/info' first, then the standard directories.
> Leading or doubled colons are not treated specially.

I recommend you just make this simple change:

-  export INFOPATH="$_GUIX_PROFILE/share/info${INFOPATH:+:}$INFOPATH"
+  export INFOPATH="$_GUIX_PROFILE/share/info$:$INFOPATH"

If INFOPATH is already set and does not end with a colon, then that
should be left as-is; it might be intentional.

Message #10 received at 41666 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me <at> tobias.gr>
To: Jonas Bernoulli <jonas <at> bernoul.li>
Cc: 41666 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#41666: $INFOPATH should end with a colon
Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2020 20:15:32 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Jonas,

Jonas Bernoulli 写道：
> On a foreign distro Guix installs /etc/profile.d/guix.sh, which 
> among
> other things adds the directory where it installs info pages to 
> the
> INFOPATH variable.

Thanks for the report!

New installations (after 21 March) should not have this problem[0] 
so I've closed & merged your bug with that one.

It's safe to manually fix your local copy of ‘guix.sh’.  It was 
created by guix-install.sh, but Guix doesn't know about or touch 
it.

Kind regards,

T G-R

[0]: https://issues.guix.gnu.org/39984

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