[gentoo-dev] Heads-up on PATH changes in baselayout-2.4

[Mike Gilbert <floppym@gentoo.org>]

If you haven't noticed, there was a change in baselayout-2.4 that
moved the default PATH setting from /etc/profile into
/etc/env.d/50baselayout. This change allows other packages to prepend
or append their PATH settings by installing files before or after
sequence 50 in /etc/env.d. See bug 255695.

This has the immediate effect of moving the toolchain-related PATH
settings (00glibc, 04gcc, 05binutils) to the left of the "default"
system PATH. This wasn't necessarily intentional, but it should make
for a minor performance improvement since gcc-wrapper is bypassed. I
haven't noticed any problems.

More generally, this change occurred a couple of months ago, and there
doesn't appear to have been any major fallout in ~arch. However, bug
629846 was opened today, which made the suggestion that we make a more
public call for testing.

So, if you maintain a package that installs a PATH setting in
/etc/env.d, please check it to ensure that it is not causing conflicts
with binaries that live in the default PATH. If needed, consider
moving them to the right by choosing a number higher than 50.