best way to ensure './' is at beginning of sys.path?

[alister]

On Sat, 04 Feb 2017 09:19:38 -0600, Wildman wrote:

> On Sat, 04 Feb 2017 11:27:01 +0200, Jussi Piitulainen wrote:
> 
>> Wildman writes:
>> 
>> [snip]
>> 
>>> If anyone is interested the correct way is to add this to /etc/profile
>>> (at the bottom):
>>>
>>> PATH=$PATH:./
>>> export PATH
>> 
>> Out of interest, can you think of a corresponding way that a mere user
>> can remove the dot from their $PATH after some presumably well-meaning
>> system administrator has put it there?
>> 
>> Is there any simple shell command for it? One that works whether the
>> dot is at the start, in the middle, or at the end, and with or without
>> the slash, and whether it's there more than once or not at all.
>> 
>> And I'd like it to be as short and simple as PATH="$PATH:.", please.
> 
> No, I do not know.  You might try your question in a linux specific
> group.  Personally I don't understand the danger in having the dot in
> the path.  The './'
> only means the current directory.  DOS and Windows has searched the
> current directory since their beginning.  Is that also dangerous?

one example of how it can be dangerous is if you accidentally download a 
program into your current directory with a name that matches a system 
command, it will get executed instead of the system command.

this can be exploited by the nefarious to install a trojan, virus or 
other nasty.

coupled with the average windows user's insistence in running with admin 
rights & clicking anything is sight is one of the reasons that windows 
has so much malware



-- 
QOTD:
	"You want me to put *holes* in my ears and hang things from them?
	How...  tribal."