Return to Answer

There are problems with this idea of a colon in the path to an executable, specifically with using said path in the PATH environment variable. In fact, there are enough problems that I've decided to take this part of my solution out, since the problem isn't really ... real. However, I leave a reference to Note 3, in case someone has no control over a colon being in the path of an executable.

There are problems with this idea of a colon in the path to an executable, specifically with using said path in the PATH environment variable as in PATH="/home/bballdave025/abc\:def:$PATH". In fact, there are enough problems that I've decided to take this part of my solution out, since the problem isn't really ... real. However, I leave a reference to Note 3, in case someone has no control over a colon being in the path of an executable.

_{Edit: I've learned a lot by answering this question and receiving great suggestions about how to fix problems and make things better. I've left most of my "learning" here in Notes after the answer, but I'm taking out some extraneous stuff, specifically concerning a file-path that contains a colon (':').}

printf "$PATH" | tr ':' '\0' |     
    xargs -0 sh -c '
      find "$@" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f -name "gcc-*" 2> 
        >( grep -v "Permission denied\|No such" >&2)
    ' sh

printf "$PATH" | tr ':' '\0' |     
    xargs -0 sh -c '
     { find "$@" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f \
                 -name "gcc-*" 2>&1 >&3 | 
         grep -v "Permission denied\|No such" >&2; } 3>&1' sh

There are problems with this. In fact, there are enough problems that I've decided to take my solution out, since the problem isn't really ... real. However, I leave a reference to Note 3 in case someone has no control over a colon being in the path of an executable.

Things are more clear and concise in a comment (archived) on this answer by
@Stéphane-Chazelas,

PATH="/home/bballdave025/abc:def" means a $PATH with two directories: /home/bballdave025/abc\ and def, there's not point trying to treat that :

_{Edit: I've learned a lot by answering this question and receiving great suggestions about how to fix problems and make things better. I've left some of my "learning" here in Notes after the answer, but I'm taking out some extraneous stuff. Hopefully everything remaining will be useful.}

printf %s "$PATH" | tr ':' '\0' |     
    xargs -0 sh -c '
      find "$@" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f -name "gcc-*" 2> 
        >( grep -v "Permission denied\|No such" >&2)
    ' sh

printf %s "$PATH" | tr ':' '\0' |     
    xargs -0 sh -c '
     { find "$@" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f \
                 -name "gcc-*" 2>&1 >&3 | 
         grep -v "Permission denied\|No such" >&2; } 3>&1' sh

There are problems with this idea of a colon in the path to an executable, specifically with using said path in the PATH environment variable. In fact, there are enough problems that I've decided to take this part of my solution out, since the problem isn't really ... real. However, I leave a reference to Note 3, in case someone has no control over a colon being in the path of an executable.

Things are more clear and concise in a comment (archived) on this (my current) answer by
@Stéphane-Chazelas,

PATH="/home/bballdave025/abc\:def" means a $PATH with two directories: /home/bballdave025/abc\ and def, there's not point trying to treat that \: specially.

_{Edited. Credit goes to @Stéphane-Chazelas for warning about using -maxdepth 1 without -mindepth 1}

$ printf "$PATH" | tr ':' '\0' |
    xargs -0 sh -c 'find "$@" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f -name "gcc-*"' sh
/usr/bin/gcc-ar.exe
/usr/bin/gcc-nm.exe
/usr/bin/gcc-ranlib.exe

_{Edited. Credit goes to @Stéphane-Chazelas for warning about using -maxdepth 1 without -mindepth 1 as well as for giving better usage of printf.}

$ printf %s "$PATH" | tr ':' '\0' |
    xargs -0 sh -c 'find "$@" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f -name "gcc-*"' sh
/usr/bin/gcc-ar.exe
/usr/bin/gcc-nm.exe
/usr/bin/gcc-ranlib.exe