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zsh: naming a loop variable `path` wipes PATH (command not found: curl)
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PATHtied parameterwhile readcommand not foundpath variable
Error Messages
(eval):35: command not found: curlcommand not found: sleepProblem
In zsh, a shell loop such as
while read code path; do curl ...; done < list.txt makes every external command fail with "command not found" (curl, sleep, etc.) right after the first read. The same script works in bash, so the failure looks mysterious.Solution
Never use
path (lowercase) as a variable name in zsh scripts or one-liners. In zsh, the array path is tied to PATH: assigning path=foo replaces PATH with foo, so no binary can be found. Rename the variable (e.g. read code kbp), or run the script with bash. Other tied pairs to avoid: fpath/FPATH, cdpath/CDPATH, manpath/MANPATH, module_path.Why
zsh ties special lowercase arrays to their uppercase colon-separated scalars;
read assigns to the variable like any other assignment, so the tied PATH is overwritten for the rest of the shell.Code Snippets
Broken vs fixed
# broken in zsh: PATH becomes the second column
while read code path; do curl -s "https://x/$path"; done < list.txt
# fixed
while read code kbp; do curl -s "https://x/$kbp"; done < list.txtRevisions (0)
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