[Guido]
I tried your experiment but added 'print sys.argv[0]' and didn't see that. sys.argv[0] is the path to the script.
My mistake! You're right, sys.argv[0] is the path to the script for me too. [Tim]
The directory of the script being run was nevertheless in sys.path[0] on both Windows and Linux. On Windows, but not on Linux, the _current_ directory (the directory I happened to be in at the time I invoked Python) was also on sys.path; Mark Hammond said it was not when he tried, but he didn't show exactly what he did so I'm not sure what he saw.
[Guido]
I see what you see. The first entry is the script's directory, the 2nd is a nonexistent zip file, the 3rd is the current directory, then the rest is standard library stuff.
So why doesn't Mark see that? I'll ask him ;-)
I suppose PC/getpathp.c puts it there, per your post quoted above?
I don't think it does (although I understand why it's sane to believe that it must). Curiously, I do _not_ see the current directory on sys.path on Windows if I run from current CVS HEAD. I do see it running Pythons 2.2.3, 2.3.5 and 2.4.2. PC/getpathp.c doesn't appear to have changed in a relevant way. blor.py: """ import sys from pprint import pprint print sys.version_info pprint(sys.path) """ C:\>\code\python\PCbuild\python.exe code\blor.py # C:\ not in sys.path (2, 5, 0, 'alpha', 0) ['C:\\code', 'C:\\code\\python\\PCbuild\\python25.zip', 'C:\\code\\python\\DLLs', 'C:\\code\\python\\lib', 'C:\\code\\python\\lib\\plat-win', 'C:\\code\\python\\lib\\lib-tk', 'C:\\code\\python\\PCbuild', 'C:\\code\\python', 'C:\\code\\python\\lib\\site-packages'] C:\>\python24\python.exe code\blor.py # C:\ in sys.path (2, 4, 2, 'final', 0) ['C:\\code', 'C:\\python24\\python24.zip', 'C:\\', 'C:\\python24\\DLLs', 'C:\\python24\\lib', 'C:\\python24\\lib\\plat-win', 'C:\\python24\\lib\\lib-tk', 'C:\\python24', 'C:\\python24\\lib\\site-packages', 'C:\\python24\\lib\\site-packages\\PIL', 'C:\\python24\\lib\\site-packages\\win32', 'C:\\python24\\lib\\site-packages\\win32\\lib', 'C:\\python24\\lib\\site-packages\\Pythonwin']