fails to search external commands for extensions

[Bug Importer]

Extra colon in ${PATH} environment variable prevents　inkscape to search
external commands which are required by extensions.

For example, when
  PATH="/home/leona/script:/usr/local/bin::/usr/bin:/bin",
external commands in /usr/bin or in /bin cannot be found by inkscape.

(*) external commands means the commands described
<dependency>...</dependency> block in extensions.

[Gellule (gellule-xg)]

Confirmed on Windows platform with Inkscape release 0.45.1.
With a Path containing ;; (equivalent to unix's ::) all path following ;; are ignored.

With path set to "path1;path2;path3;;c:\Program Files\pstoedit", pstoedit is not found.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

still present - reproduced with Inkscape 0.47-1 on OS X 10.5.8:
changing $PATH in the launcher script 'Contents/Resources/bin/inkscape' to contain an empty pair of separators ('::') prevents any helper applications to be found in directories listed after the '::'.

[Jim Hodapp (jhodapp)]

Reproduced with Inkscape 0.48.3.1 on Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2. Reproduced by putting a "::" in front of /usr/bin, then I no longer had the option of importing a .ps file via File->Import...

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Reproduced with Inkscape 0.48.3.1, but not with current trunk (r11679) on OS X 10.7.4, using this command line:
$ PATH="::$PATH" inkscape

(--> for example PS/EPS import is not available with 0.48.3.1, but works ok with current trunk, despite the leading '::')

Needs verification with current trunk build on Linux…

[Jim Hodapp (jhodapp)]

I'll give trunk a try on Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2 to verify if the same success happens that you've had on OS X.

[Jim Hodapp (jhodapp)]

I can confirm that with trunk (r11680) this bug is indeed fixed on Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2. It'd be nice to verify this on Windows as well. Can someone please verify trunk on Windows 7? I'll mark the bug as fixed after verifying it's also fixed on Windows.

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

this works correctly on Windows XP, Inkscape rev 11668. I used a ;; as a separator in the PATH variable to do the test.

[Jim Hodapp (jhodapp)]

Excellent, thanks Alvin. Changing the status to fix committed.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

AFAIK fixed in trunk in r11312 for
- Bug #801568 “Incorrect PATH scan results in extensions not found”
 <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/801568>

Already backported to the stable release branch 0.48.x in
<http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/RELEASE_0_48_BRANCH/revision/9891>