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+## Copyright (C) 1997 John W. Eaton
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
+## any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free
+## Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA
+## 02111-1307, USA.
+
+## usage: p = path (...)
+##
+## Modify or display Octave's LOADPATH.
+##
+## If nargin and nargout are 0, display the elements of Octave's
+## LOADPATH in an easy to read format.
+##
+## If nargin is zero and nargout is greater than zero, return the
+## current value of LOADPATH.
+##
+## If nargin is greater than zero, concatenate the arguments, separating
+## them with ":".  Set LOADPATH to the result and also return it.
+##
+## No checks are made for duplicate elements.
+
+## Author: jwe
+
+function p = path (...)
+
+  if (nargin == 0)
+    if (nargout == 0)
+      stdout << "\nLOADPATH contains the following directories:\n\n  ";
+      stdout << strrep (LOADPATH, ":", "\n  ") << "\n\n";
+    else    
+      p = LOADPATH;
+    endif
+  else
+    p = va_arg ();
+    for i = 2:nargin
+      p = sprintf ("%s:%s", p, va_arg ());
+    endfor
+    LOADPATH = p;
+  endif
+
+endfunction