How a PYTHONPATH is constructed?

[Anonymous]

I noticed that whenever I set my PYTHONPATH on my workstation before launching Maya it always appears on the front of the PYTHONPATH inside of Maya.

Running this:

import pymel.util as pmu
import os.path
for path in pmu.getEnv('PYTHONPATH').split(';'):
    print path

Gets me:

r:/mypath <- PYTHONPATH I set before launching Maya
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/bifrost/scripts/presets
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/bifrost/scripts
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/fbx/scripts
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/mentalrayForMaya2016/scripts/AETemplates
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/mentalrayForMaya2016/scripts/mentalray
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/mentalrayForMaya2016/scripts/NETemplates
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/mentalrayForMaya2016/scripts/unsupported
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/mentalrayForMaya2016/scripts
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/substance/scripts
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/cafm
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/xgenm
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/xgenm/ui
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/xgenm/xmaya
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/xgenm/ui/brushes
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/xgenm/ui/dialogs
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/xgenm/ui/fxmodules
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/xgenm/ui/tabs
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/xgenm/ui/util
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/xgenm/ui/widgets
C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/plug-ins/xgen/scripts

Can I rely on this?  I want to be able to grab the value I set on my workstation.  If so, I can just parse the results of getEnv().