Do not set $PATH in config.fish, suggest using fish_user_paths instead

[catthehacker]

Currently Homebrew is appending $PATH via Homebrew/brew@8719746
Instead it should not do it at all and suggest user to run this command once

set -U fish_user_paths "/usr/local/sbin" $fish_user_paths

The reasoning is that config.fish is universal config shared across machines. $PATH set in config.fish will follow to any other host.
fish_user_paths is a variable set only for the current host via fishd.* so it will not bloat $PATH on other hosts.
Also explained here...

[SMillerDev]

I'm not really sure I understand your reasoning about sharing your dotfiles between machines. But if you think something in homebrew could be better you should make a pull request to fix it.

[catthehacker]

The reason is that I can have unified configuration across machines, like prompt or some functions :)
don't judge

But if you think something in homebrew could be better you should make a pull request to fix it.

I wanted to know maintainers opinion before I start doing anything, as sometimes some of the developers are stubborn, don't see the benefit and close the PR or just simply ignore it.
I'll make PR once I go through whole code where it mentions fishshell.

[SMillerDev]

The reason is that I can have unified configuration across machines, like prompt or some functions :)

But there's no functional difference between PATH and the fish equivalent for it as far as I can see.

[catthehacker]

Whichever option is chosen, path(s) always end up in $PATH but its up to the implementation how that will work and what are the side effects.
From fish documentation:

A faster way is to modify the $fish_user_paths universal variable, which is automatically prepended to $PATH. For example, to permanently add /usr/local/bin to your $PATH, you could write:

set -U fish_user_paths /usr/local/bin $fish_user_paths

The advantage is that you don't have to go mucking around in files: just run this once at the command line, and it will affect the current session and all future instances too. (Note: you should NOT add this line to config.fish. If you do, the variable will get longer each time you run fish!)

[SMillerDev]

They don't actually advise against using the PATH variable, I think we should keep the current approach since it's easier for people to understand. As a fish user that syncs their dotfiles between devices I don't even understand what the benefit of fish_user_paths is in this case, other than "it's fish specific"

[catthehacker]

I'm not saying it's bad, just that there is a better way to do it.

As a fish user that syncs their dotfiles between devices I don't even understand what the benefit of fish_user_paths is in this case, other than "it's fish specific"

The benefit is that $fish_user_paths is changing $PATH only on machine it was set on via fishd.* file, while $PATH set via config.fish is affecting $PATH on all machines.

I think we should keep the current approach since it's easier for people to understand.

That's okay, it's the reason why I wanted to discuss it before. :)