diff --git a/src/env/environment.rs b/src/env/environment.rs
index 2e7c05f3f..94b66c241 100644
--- a/src/env/environment.rs
+++ b/src/env/environment.rs
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
 use std::sync::atomic::Ordering;
 
 use libc::{c_int, confstr, uid_t, STDOUT_FILENO, _IONBF};
-use once_cell::sync::OnceCell;
+use once_cell::sync::{Lazy, OnceCell};
 use std::collections::HashMap;
 use std::ffi::CStr;
 use std::io::Write;
@@ -567,29 +567,39 @@ fn setup_user(vars: &EnvStack) {
     }
 }
 
-/// Make sure the PATH variable contains something.
-fn setup_path() {
+pub(crate) static FALLBACK_PATH: Lazy<&[WString]> = Lazy::new(|| {
     use crate::libc::_CS_PATH;
-
-    let vars = EnvStack::globals();
-    let path = vars.get_unless_empty(L!("PATH"));
-    if path.is_none() {
-        // _CS_PATH: colon-separated paths to find POSIX utilities
-
-        let buf_size = unsafe { confstr(_CS_PATH(), std::ptr::null_mut(), 0) };
-        let path = if buf_size > 0 {
+    // _CS_PATH: colon-separated paths to find POSIX utilities
+    let buf_size = unsafe { confstr(_CS_PATH(), std::ptr::null_mut(), 0) };
+    Box::leak(
+        (if buf_size > 0 {
             let mut buf = vec![b'\0' as libc::c_char; buf_size];
             unsafe { confstr(_CS_PATH(), buf.as_mut_ptr(), buf_size) };
             let buf = buf;
             // safety: buf should contain a null-byte, and is not mutable unless we move ownership
             let cstr = unsafe { CStr::from_ptr(buf.as_ptr()) };
-            str2wcstring(cstr.to_bytes())
+            colon_split(&[str2wcstring(cstr.to_bytes())])
         } else {
-            // the above should really not fail
-            join_strings(crate::path::DEFAULT_PATH.as_ref(), ':')
-        };
+            vec![
+                WString::from_str(env!("PREFIX")) + L!("/bin"),
+                L!("/usr/bin").to_owned(),
+                L!("/bin").to_owned(),
+            ]
+        })
+        .into_boxed_slice(),
+    )
+});
 
-        vars.set_one(L!("PATH"), EnvMode::GLOBAL | EnvMode::EXPORT, path);
+/// Make sure the PATH variable contains something.
+fn setup_path() {
+    let vars = EnvStack::globals();
+    let path = vars.get_unless_empty(L!("PATH"));
+    if path.is_none() {
+        vars.set(
+            L!("PATH"),
+            EnvMode::GLOBAL | EnvMode::EXPORT,
+            FALLBACK_PATH.to_vec(),
+        );
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/path.rs b/src/path.rs
index 7d7339d37..55cb6b4d9 100644
--- a/src/path.rs
+++ b/src/path.rs
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 //! path-related issues.
 
 use crate::common::{wcs2osstring, wcs2zstring};
-use crate::env::{EnvMode, EnvStack, Environment};
+use crate::env::{EnvMode, EnvStack, Environment, FALLBACK_PATH};
 use crate::expand::{expand_tilde, HOME_DIRECTORY};
 use crate::flog::{FLOG, FLOGF};
 use crate::wchar::prelude::*;
@@ -196,15 +196,6 @@ pub fn path_get_path(cmd: &wstr, vars: &dyn Environment) -> Option<WString> {
     }
 }
 
-// PREFIX is defined at build time.
-pub static DEFAULT_PATH: Lazy<[WString; 3]> = Lazy::new(|| {
-    [
-        WString::from_str(env!("PREFIX")) + L!("/bin"),
-        L!("/usr/bin").to_owned(),
-        L!("/bin").to_owned(),
-    ]
-});
-
 /// Finds the path of an executable named `cmd`, by looking in $PATH taken from `vars`.
 /// On success, err will be 0 and the path is returned.
 /// On failure, we return the "best path" with err set appropriately.
@@ -225,7 +216,7 @@ pub fn path_try_get_path(cmd: &wstr, vars: &dyn Environment) -> GetPathResult {
     if let Some(path) = vars.get(L!("PATH")) {
         path_get_path_core(cmd, path.as_list())
     } else {
-        path_get_path_core(cmd, &*DEFAULT_PATH)
+        path_get_path_core(cmd, &FALLBACK_PATH)
     }
 }