Command resolution prefers /usr/sbin over /usr/bin despite identical PATH order

[ergolyam]

Is this a new report?

Yes

System Info

Void 6.12.63_1 x86_64 AuthenticAMD notuptodate rF

Package(s) Affected

fish-shell-4.3.2_1, bash-5.3_2, etc.

Does a report exist for this bug with the project's home (upstream) and/or another distro?

No response

Expected behaviour

With identical PATH order, command resolution should prefer the binary located earlier in the filesystem hierarchy only according to PATH lookup rules, consistently with other distributions (e.g. Alpine).

In this case, fish should resolve to /usr/bin/fish.

Actual behaviour

On Void Linux, fish resolves to /usr/sbin/fish, even though PATH order is identical to Alpine Linux where /usr/bin/fish is chosen.
This indicates the issue is not PATH order itself, but Void-specific command resolution behavior or filesystem/packaging layout.

Steps to reproduce

My host:

$ echo $PATH
/home/user/.local/bin /home/user/.local/share/android-sdk/cmdline-tools/bin /home/user/.local/share/android-sdk/platform-tools /home/user/.local/share/android-sdk/build-tools/33.0.0 /usr/local/sbin /usr/local/bin /usr/sbin /usr/bin /sbin /bin
$ command -v fish
/usr/sbin/fish
$ command -v bash
/usr/sbin/bash
$ command -v podman
/usr/sbin/podman

Void glibc container:

$ podman run --rm -it ghcr.io/void-linux/void-glibc
# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
# command -v fish
/usr/sbin/fish

Alpine container:

$ podman run --rm -it docker.io/alpine
# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
# command -v fish
/usr/bin/fish

[ahesford]

As noted in your PR, just configure the path the way you need it. It is not a bug that the default path order includes or even prefers usrmerge directories.