I'd extend the commit message to the following, capturing the justification for the change:

Makefile: Avoid sanitizing PATH on non-FreeBSD systems

Allow the build process to find host binaries during the host-symlinks target when
cross-building on non-FreeBSD systems. Whilst most non-FreeBSD systems have all
the needed tools in /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin (the final
path added by host-symlinks itself), Homebrew for macOS on Arm defaults to
/opt/homebrew/bin, other more niche systems may also deviate and users may
expect tools in a customised PATH to be picked up, unlike on FreeBSD where we
want to ensure everything comes from base. In particular, (un)xz are needed
from Homebrew on macOS, and thus cannot be found on Arm without this.

Note that non-FreeBSD builds enforce BUILD_WITH_STRICT_TMPPATH, and so the
actual main build steps will still use a sanitised PATH.

In D37991#865559, @jrtc27 wrote:

I'd extend the commit message to the following, capturing the justification for the change:

Makefile: Avoid sanitizing PATH on non-FreeBSD systems

Allow the build process to find host binaries during the host-symlinks target when
cross-building on non-FreeBSD systems. Whilst most non-FreeBSD systems have all
the needed tools in /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin (the final
path added by host-symlinks itself), Homebrew for macOS on Arm defaults to
/opt/homebrew/bin, other more niche systems may also deviate and users may
expect tools in a customised PATH to be picked up, unlike on FreeBSD where we
want to ensure everything comes from base. In particular, (un)xz are needed
from Homebrew on macOS, and thus cannot be found on Arm without this.

Note that non-FreeBSD builds enforce BUILD_WITH_STRICT_TMPPATH, and so the
actual main build steps will still use a sanitised PATH.

Thanks for writing this up. I should have added a description like this from the start.
I am not a FreeBSD committer yet, so I am not capable of committing this to src.
Would one of you be willing to do that? @jrtc27 @arichardson

Thanks :)

In D37991#865633, @jfree wrote:

In D37991#865559, @jrtc27 wrote:

I'd extend the commit message to the following, capturing the justification for the change:

Makefile: Avoid sanitizing PATH on non-FreeBSD systems

Allow the build process to find host binaries during the host-symlinks target when
cross-building on non-FreeBSD systems. Whilst most non-FreeBSD systems have all
the needed tools in /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin (the final
path added by host-symlinks itself), Homebrew for macOS on Arm defaults to
/opt/homebrew/bin, other more niche systems may also deviate and users may
expect tools in a customised PATH to be picked up, unlike on FreeBSD where we
want to ensure everything comes from base. In particular, (un)xz are needed
from Homebrew on macOS, and thus cannot be found on Arm without this.

Note that non-FreeBSD builds enforce BUILD_WITH_STRICT_TMPPATH, and so the
actual main build steps will still use a sanitised PATH.

Thanks for writing this up. I should have added a description like this from the start.
I am not a FreeBSD committer yet, so I am not capable of committing this to src.
Would one of you be willing to do that? @jrtc27 @arichardson

Thanks :)

Will try testing this change later today and will commit then. Thanks for the patch!

Also no need to upload a new patch, those are notes to myself for testing later :)

@jfree One more thing, could you give me an email address for committing? I see some commits in tree with Jake Freeland <jfree@FreeBSD.org>, is that correct?

In D37991#865889, @arichardson wrote:

@jfree One more thing, could you give me an email address for committing? I see some commits in tree with Jake Freeland <jfree@FreeBSD.org>, is that correct?

Yes, <jfree@FreeBSD.org> is correct. Thanks.