Two colons in PATH

[robert_kratschmann]

After installing ASE 16.0 SP04 PL06, you will find the following entry in the SYBASE.sh script:

export PATH
PATH="/opt/ase160/ASE-16_0/bin:/opt/ase160/ASE-16_0/install:/opt/ase160/WLA/bin:":$PATH

After executing the script, the PATH variable looks like this:

PATH=/opt/ase160/ASE-16_0/bin:/opt/ase160/ASE-16_0/install:/opt/ase160/WLA/bin::/opt/ase160/ASE-16_0/bin

On Unix/Linux systems, two consecutive colons (::) in a PATH variable are interpreted as including the
current directory (.) in the search path for executables. This can pose a security risk, depending on the context.
A similar issue exists in SYBASE.csh. I understand this can be easily resolved by modifying SYBASE.sh or SYBASE.csh!

Is there a specific reason why the extra colon after $SYBASE/WLA/bin exists?
Should this behavior be addressed by removing or correcting it in the ASE setup.bin?

Thanks

Robert

[Arbi_TM · Accepted solution]

Hi Robert, This is a known issue. Please take a look at this KB: 3509658 - The WLA related PATH setting in SYBASE environment files has extra ' : ' - SAP ASE https://me.sap.com/notes/3509658/E Workaround is what you mentioned already, that is to modify the SYBASE.xx manually and remove the extra character. cheers, Tony

[Mark_A_Parsons]

Looks like a mistake/typo on behalf of the individual(s) responsible for putting together the ASE distribution package.

This issue also exists in my oldest ASE installation (ASE 16.0 SP03 PL07) so it appears to have been introduced at least a few years ago.

A few simple grep calls against an extracted ASE distribution package doesn't show any clear/obvious way to fix this prior to running setup.bin so it looks like you're limited to updating the SYBASE.* files after running setup.bin.

If you have a maintenance contract I'd suggest opening a ticket with tech support to get this fixed for future releases.  If you're lucky tech support will put out a KBA/fix for the older versions where this is occurring, though biting the bullet and performing a manual update (sed anyone?) is going to be faster.

[bart_van_kuijk]

Hi Mark

You were right (by chance it looks) about SP03 PL07. That indeed happened to be the release where the WLA environment variable was introduced and it has been wrong from the start.

The KBA has been updated with following:

A fix for the issue from CR 829765 will be released in:

ASE 16.0 SP04 PL07
ASE 16.1

Workaround:
Manually modify the environment file and remove the extra character.

As there will be no further PLs for SP03, for this release the workaround needs to be applied.

Rgds

Bart