Question:

I believe the documentation is wrong concerning the default path when PFPATH is not defined. It says "$ANTELOPE/data/pf:.", but my experience is that it finds and uses the pf file in the current directory first.

Answer:

This is a common confusion. The parameter file routines read every matching parameter file along the path. The values in the parameter file last read override earlier values.

pfwhich shows what parameter files are found, in order, eg:

% pfwhich dbloc2
/opt/antelope/4.4/data/pf/dbloc2.pf
dbloc2.pf

Values in the local directory dbloc2.pf will override values from the default parameter file in $ANTELOPE/data/pf.

Playing with pfecho with two different parameter files might make this process clearer.