$PATH in system() shell

[Thomas Weber]

Hi, 

the path used in the shell invoked via system() looks like the following
(edited for better readability):

octave:1> system ('echo $PATH')
/usr/lib/octave/3.2.4/site/exec/i486-pc-linux-gnu:
/usr/lib/octave/api-v37/site/exec/i486-pc-linux-gnu:
/usr/lib/octave/site/exec/i486-pc-linux-gnu:
/usr/lib/octave/3.2.4/exec/i486-pc-linux-gnu:
/usr/bin:
***
/usr/lib/ccache:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games

The line marked with three asterisks marks the beginning of my path as
user. However, the fact that /usr/bin is prepended to my path means that
I can't use ccache when building packages via pkg.m.

Is there a reason that /usr/bin is prepended by Octave here? I've
checked with 3.4 and it's still the same.

Thanks  
        Thomas