Strange behaviour in variable substitution

["Erwin J. van Eijk" <eijk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

I have some strange things happening since beta13/17? (something like
that).

I have this .zshenv:
if [ -f /bin/arch ]; then
        ARCH=`/bin/arch`
elif [ -f /bin/hp-pa -a /bin/hp-pa ]; then
        ARCH=snake
elif [ -d /usr/sbin ]; then
        ARCH=netbsd
else
        ARCH=unknown
fi
export ARCH

if [ "X$ARCH" = "Xmips" ] ; then
	export LONGARCH=mips_ultrix_4.3
elif [ "X$ARCH" = "Xalpha" ] ; then
	export LONGARCH=alpha_osf1_3.2
fi

P="$HOME/bin \
$HOME/bin/bin.$ARCH \
$HOME/bin/$ARCH \
$HOME/bin/$ARCH/AF \
$HOME/Nemesis/tools/install/$LONGARCH/bin
/usr/users/eijk/bin
/usr/bin/mh \
/usr/local/bin \
 [.... some dirs deleted ......]
/usr/local/frame/bin \
/usr/users/eijk/bin/AF "

apath=""
for dir in `echo $P`
do
        if [ -d ${dir} ]; then
                apath="$apath:$dir"
        fi
done
PATH=$apath
export PATH

unset arch bin dir apath P
#end of .zshrc


The trouble is that the $HOME/bin dir is added to my path, but the
$HOME/bin/$ARCH is not (and not because they do not exist). It works
when I substitute $HOME with my homepath ofcourse, but that's no real
solution.
--
       +--------------------+
 \     | Erwin J.  van Eijk | Standard Disclaimer applies
  \ /\ | eijk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
  ( )  | eijk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx | A single death is a tragedy,
_( * )_+--------------------+ A million deaths is a statistic - Josef Stalin