Bug#1144635: [Pkg-zsh-devel] Bug#1144635: zsh: broken by the FPATH environment variable defined by bash / lmod

Michael Prokop <[email protected]> Mon, 17 Aug 2026 16:35:32 +0200
Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.bugs.rc
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
severity 1144635 important
thx

* Vincent Lefevre [Mon Aug 17, 2026 at 03:09:57PM +0200]:

> On a machine that has just been upgraded to trixie, I start zsh
> via a bash login shell (run by sshd). The issue is that when it
> is a login shell, bash defines the $FPATH environement variable
> to '/usr/share/lmod/lmod/init/ksh_funcs' as shown by
> 
>   echo "FPATH = '$FPATH'" >&2
> 
> at the beginning of the ~/.bash_profile file, which outputs:
> 
> FPATH = '/usr/share/lmod/lmod/init/ksh_funcs'
> 
> This is possibly due to /usr/share/lmod/8.7.60/init/bash from the
> lmod package, as mentioned at
> 
>   https://github.com/direnv/direnv/issues/858
> 
> (note that I'm not a direnv user... this was found by Google + AI).

Github is currently down
(https://www.githubstatus.com/incidents/zkxwbgr0cnmx),
so I can't check that reference.

But is it actually necessary and a good idea, that lmod
*exports* variables like that?

It looks like lmod pollutes the environment quiet a lot,
like e.g. also:

  LMOD_SETTARG_FULL_SUPPORT=no
  LMOD_VERSION=8.7.60
  MODULEPATH_ROOT=/usr/share/modulefiles
  LMOD_PKG=/usr/share/lmod/lmod
  LMOD_ROOT=/usr/share/lmod
  BASH_ENV=/usr/share/lmod/lmod/init/bash
  LMOD_sys=Linux
  MODULEPATH=/etc/lmod/modules:/usr/share/lmod/lmod/modulefiles/
  LMOD_CMD=/usr/share/lmod/lmod/libexec/lmod
  BASH_FUNC_ml%%=() {  eval "$($LMOD_DIR/ml_cmd "$@")"
  }
  BASH_FUNC_module%%=() {  if [ -z "${LMOD_SH_DBG_ON+x}" ]; then
   case "$-" in 
   *v*x*)
   __lmod_sh_dbg='vx'
   ;;
   *v*)
   __lmod_sh_dbg='v'
   ;;
   *x*)
   __lmod_sh_dbg='x'
   ;;
   esac;
   fi;
   if [ -n "${__lmod_sh_dbg:-}" ]; then
   set +$__lmod_sh_dbg;
   echo "Shell debugging temporarily silenced: export LMOD_SH_DBG_ON=1 for Lmod's output" 1>&2;
   fi;
   eval "$($LMOD_CMD shell "$@")" && eval "$(${LMOD_SETTARG_CMD:-:} -s sh)";
   __lmod_my_status=$?;
   if [ -n "${__lmod_sh_dbg:-}" ]; then
   echo "Shell debugging restarted" 1>&2;
   set -$__lmod_sh_dbg;
   fi;
   unset __lmod_sh_dbg;
   return $__lmod_my_status
  }

> Such a setting completely breaks zsh, which outputs
> 
> zsh:1: url-quote-magic: function definition file not found
> 
> each time I type a key (the key has no other effect, i.e. the
> command line at the prompt remains empty, so I need to type Ctrl-D
> to quit zsh).
> 
> It appears that instead of ignoring the $FPATH environment variable
> on startup, zsh sets $fpath to $FPATH.

Right.

> Note that the zshparam(1) man page says: "Some environment variables
> are not imported for reasons of security or because they would
> interfere with the correct operation of other shell features.",
> which should be the case here.

Do you mind brining this up to upstream yourself?

regards
-mika-
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