their cgit is going incredibly slowly i presume from corporate inference so here's the diff with the comments lol. love distributed version control systems

commit eb9ec79c13f17d610fcb6de49628b8a7686fbab7
Author: Paul Eggert 
Date: Thu Jul 24 14:49:52 2025 -0700

 PATH defaults now act more like GNU and POSIX

 When PATH is unset or empty, use the system default,
 to be consistent with GNU/Linux and with POSIX.
 If there is no system default do not default to "."
 as that can be dangerous.
 * src/callproc.c (init_callproc_1, init_callproc):
 Default PATH to the null pointer, not the empty string.
 * src/emacs.c (default_PATH): New function.
 (find_emacs_executable, decode_env_path): Be consistent with POSIX
 and with glibc about what to do when PATH is unset or empty.

diff --git a/doc/emacs/cmdargs.texi b/doc/emacs/cmdargs.texi
index 00167056be1..79ae2d064d1 100644
--- a/doc/emacs/cmdargs.texi
+++ b/doc/emacs/cmdargs.texi
@@ -695,6 +695,7 @@ General Variables
 A colon-separated list of directories containing executable files.
 This is used to initialize the variable @code{exec-path}
 (@pxref{Shell}).
+If unset or empty, an implementation-dependent default is used.
 @item PWD
 @vindex PWD@r{, environment variable}
 If set, this should be the default directory when Emacs was started.
diff --git a/doc/emacs/misc.texi b/doc/emacs/misc.texi
index 88b7bfc7049..2c2c710eea4 100644
--- a/doc/emacs/misc.texi
+++ b/doc/emacs/misc.texi
@@ -753,8 +753,8 @@ Shell
 (either in the @var{cmd} argument to one of the above commands, or in
 other contexts), Emacs searches for the program in the directories
 specified by the variable @code{exec-path}. The value of this
-variable must be a list of directories; the default value is
-initialized from the environment variable @env{PATH} when Emacs is
+variable must be a list of directories; the default value
+depends on the environment variable @env{PATH} when Emacs is
 started (@pxref{General Variables}).

 @kbd{M-x eshell} invokes a shell implemented entirely in Emacs. It
diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index 865e5e6b6d5..8f396403ba2 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -2755,6 +2755,12 @@ option, but can optionally return the equivalent of 'exec-suffixes' from
 a remote host. It must be used in conjunction with the function
 'exec-path'.

++++
+** The 'exec-path' variable now uses same default PATH as other programs.
+That is, if the PATH environment variable is unset or empty, 'exec-path'
+now acts as if PATH is the system default, which is "/bin:/usr/bin"
+on GNU/Linux systems.
+

 * Changes in Emacs 31.1 on Non-Free Operating Systems

diff --git a/src/callproc.c b/src/callproc.c
index 7059a2bac6f..e1a369b47f4 100644
--- a/src/callproc.c
+++ b/src/callproc.c
@@ -1960,7 +1960,7 @@ init_callproc_1 (void)
 Vexec_path = decode_env_path ("EMACSPATH", PATH_EXEC, 0);
 Vexec_directory = Ffile_name_as_directory (Fcar (Vexec_path));
 /* FIXME? For ns, path_exec should go at the front? /
- Vexec_path = nconc2 (decode_env_path ("PATH", "", 0), Vexec_path);
+ Vexec_path = nconc2 (decode_env_path ("PATH", NULL, 0), Vexec_path);
 }

 / This is run after init_cmdargs, when Vinstallation_directory is valid. /
@@ -1985,7 +1985,7 @@ init_callproc (void)
 {
 / Running uninstalled, so default to tem rather than PATH_EXEC. */
 Vexec_path = decode_env_path ("EMACSPATH", SSDATA (tem), 0);
- Vexec_path = nconc2 (decode_env_path ("PATH", "", 0), Vexec_path);
+ Vexec_path = nconc2 (decode_env_path ("PATH", NULL, 0), Vexec_path);
 }

 Vexec_directory = Ffile_name_as_directory (tem);
diff --git a/src/emacs.c b/src/emacs.c
index 3689c92c8b2..aa762e7edb1 100644
--- a/src/emacs.c
+++ b/src/emacs.c
@@ -737,6 +737,44 @@ argmatch (char **argv, int argc, const char *sstr, const char lstr,
 }
 }

+/ Return the default PATH if it can be determined, NULL otherwise. */
+
+static char const *
+default_PATH (void)
+{
+ static char const path;
+
+ / A static buffer big enough so that confstr is called just once
+ in GNU/Linux, where the default PATH is "/bin:/usr/bin".
+ If staticbuf[0], path is already initialized. */
+ static char staticbuf[16];
+
+ if (!staticbuf[0])
+ {
+#ifdef _CS_PATH
+ char buf = staticbuf;
+ size_t bufsize = sizeof staticbuf, s;
+
+ / If necessary call confstr a second time with a bigger buffer. /
+ while (bufsize < (s = confstr (_CS_PATH, buf, bufsize)))
+ {
+ buf = xmalloc (s);
+ bufsize = s;
+ }
+
+ if (s == 0)
+ {
+ staticbuf[0] = 1;
+ buf = NULL;
+ }
+
+ path = buf;
+#endif
+ }
+
+ return path;
+}
+
 #if !defined HAVE_ANDROID || defined ANDROID_STUBIFY

 / Find a name (absolute or relative) of the Emacs executable whose
@@ -778,10 +816,11 @@ find_emacs_executable (char const *argv0, ptrdiff_t *candidate_size)
 ptrdiff_t argv0_length = strlen (argv0);

 const char *path = getenv ("PATH");
+ if (! (path && path))
+ path = default_PATH ();
 if (!path)
 {
- / Default PATH is implementation-defined, so we don't know how
- to conduct the search. /
+ / We don't know how to conduct the search. */
 return NULL;
 }

@@ -3217,15 +3256,19 @@ decode_env_path (const char *evarname, const char *defalt, bool empty)
 to initialize variables when Emacs starts up, and isn't called
 after that. */
 if (evarname != 0)
- path = getenv (evarname);
+ {
+ path = getenv (evarname);
+ if (! (path && *path) && strcmp (evarname, "PATH") == 0)
+ path = default_PATH ();
+ }
 else
 path = 0;
 if (!path)
 {
-#ifdef NS_SELF_CONTAINED
- path = ns_relocate (defalt);
-#else
 path = defalt;
+#ifdef NS_SELF_CONTAINED
+ if (path)
+ path = ns_relocate (path);
 #endif
 #ifdef WINDOWSNT
 defaulted = 1;
@@ -3277,7 +3320,7 @@ decode_env_path (const char *evarname, const char *defalt, bool empty)
 }
 #endif
 lpath = Qnil;
- while (1)
+ for (; path; path = *p ? p + 1 : NULL)
 {
 p = strchr (path, SEPCHAR);
 if (!p)
@@ -3320,10 +3363,6 @@ decode_env_path (const char *evarname, const char defalt, bool empty)
 } / !NILP (element) */

 lpath = Fcons (element, lpath);
- if (*p)
- path = p + 1;
- else
- break;
 }

 return Fnreverse (lpath);