for dir in $pth; do
  case "$osname" in
    os2)
      try=`ls $dir/$lib.a 2> /dev/null`;;
    *)
      ok=`(ls $dir/lib$lib.* | head -1) 2> /dev/null`
      if test -n "$ok"; then
        # for .so and .sl
        try=`ls $dir/lib$lib.s? 2> /dev/null` 
        # in case it's missing a .so, but has e.g a .so.5. Take most recent
        if test -z "$try"; then
          try=`(ls $dir/lib$lib.s?.* | tail -1) 2> /dev/null` 
        fi
        if test -z "$try"; then
          try=`ls $dir/lib$lib.a 2> /dev/null`
        else 
          try=$ok
        fi
      else
        try=
      fi;;
  esac
  if test -n "$try"; then
    echo ..."Found lib$lib in $dir";
    eval $lib=$dir;
    break
  fi
done