Fixed #22256 -- Replaced bad fallback for missing PATH

Thanks Baptiste Mispelon for the review.
Backport of acee46fc9 from master.

3 files changed, 20 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/django/core/management/utils.py b/django/core/management/utils.py
index 7159d1123f..a8959e8150 100644
--- a/django/core/management/utils.py
+++ b/django/core/management/utils.py
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ def handle_extensions(extensions=('html',), ignored=('py',)):
 
 def find_command(cmd, path=None, pathext=None):
     if path is None:
-        path = os.environ.get('PATH', []).split(os.pathsep)
+        path = os.environ.get('PATH', '').split(os.pathsep)
     if isinstance(path, six.string_types):
         path = [path]
     # check if there are funny path extensions for executables, e.g. Windows
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.6.3.txt b/docs/releases/1.6.3.txt
index 863cbf2ab2..ca9069d250 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.6.3.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.6.3.txt
@@ -34,5 +34,9 @@ several bugs in 1.6.2:
   <django.contrib.admin.ModelAdmin.preserve_filters>` when running a site with
   a URL prefix (`#21795 <http://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/21795>`_).
 
+* Fixed a crash in the ``find_command`` management utility when the ``PATH``
+  environment variable wasn't set
+  (`#22256 <http://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/22256>`_).
+
 Additionally, Django's vendored version of six, :mod:`django.utils.six` has been
 upgraded to the latest release (1.6.1).
diff --git a/tests/user_commands/tests.py b/tests/user_commands/tests.py
index bf555e66b9..c24a6e7a2d 100644
--- a/tests/user_commands/tests.py
+++ b/tests/user_commands/tests.py
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
+import os
 import sys
 
 from django.core import management
 from django.core.management import CommandError
-from django.core.management.utils import popen_wrapper
+from django.core.management.utils import find_command, popen_wrapper
 from django.test import SimpleTestCase
 from django.utils import translation
 from django.utils.six import StringIO
@@ -60,6 +61,19 @@ class CommandTests(SimpleTestCase):
             management.call_command('leave_locale_alone_true', stdout=out)
             self.assertEqual(out.getvalue(), "pl\n")
 
+    def test_find_command_without_PATH(self):
+        """
+        find_command should still work when the PATH environment variable
+        doesn't exist (#22256).
+        """
+        current_path = os.environ.pop('PATH', None)
+
+        try:
+            self.assertIsNone(find_command('_missing_'))
+        finally:
+            if current_path is not None:
+                os.environ['PATH'] = current_path
+
 
 class UtilsTests(SimpleTestCase):