diff --git a/doc/source/design/extra-match-search.rst b/doc/source/design/extra-match-search.rst
index c94bf969..ea6e575e 100644
--- a/doc/source/design/extra-match-search.rst
+++ b/doc/source/design/extra-match-search.rst
@@ -499,4 +499,9 @@ Specific impact
 
   - FUTURE: there may have room for optimization here
 
+* As environment variable defined by modulefile commands like ``setenv`` are
+  set to an empty value during scan evaluation, if a modulepath entry contains
+  a reference to such environment variable, it will not match its expecting
+  value.
+
 .. vim:set tabstop=2 shiftwidth=2 expandtab autoindent:
diff --git a/testsuite/modulefiles.spider1/moda/1 b/testsuite/modulefiles.spider1/moda/1
index a2436e8b..d50da500 100644
--- a/testsuite/modulefiles.spider1/moda/1
+++ b/testsuite/modulefiles.spider1/moda/1
@@ -19,5 +19,27 @@ if {[info exists env(TESTSUITE_SPIDER_MODPATH1)]} {
         remove_modpath2 {
             remove-path MODULEPATH $env(TESTSUITEDIR)/modulefiles.spider2
         }
+        use_append_modpath_extref1 {
+            module use -a $env(TESTSUITEDIR)/modulefiles.spid\$TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF
+        }
+        use_append_modpath_inref1 {
+            setenv TESTSUITE_SPIDER_INREF unk
+            module use -a $env(TESTSUITEDIR)/modulefiles.spid\$TESTSUITE_SPIDER_INREF
+        }
+        use_append_modpath_inref2 {
+            setenv TESTSUITE_SPIDER_INREF er2
+            module use -a $env(TESTSUITEDIR)/modulefiles.spid\$TESTSUITE_SPIDER_INREF
+        }
+        prepend_modpath_extref1 {
+            prepend-path MODULEPATH $env(TESTSUITEDIR)/modulefiles.spid\$TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF
+        }
+        prepend_modpath_inref1 {
+            setenv TESTSUITE_SPIDER_INREF unk
+            prepend-path MODULEPATH $env(TESTSUITEDIR)/modulefiles.spid\$TESTSUITE_SPIDER_INREF
+        }
+        prepend_modpath_inref2 {
+            setenv TESTSUITE_SPIDER_INREF er2
+            prepend-path MODULEPATH $env(TESTSUITEDIR)/modulefiles.spid\$TESTSUITE_SPIDER_INREF
+        }
     }
 }
diff --git a/testsuite/modules.92-spider/090-spider-modpath.exp b/testsuite/modules.92-spider/090-spider-modpath.exp
index 5f117de6..08bd585c 100644
--- a/testsuite/modules.92-spider/090-spider-modpath.exp
+++ b/testsuite/modules.92-spider/090-spider-modpath.exp
@@ -182,6 +182,62 @@ moda/2"
 }
 
 
+# modulepath entry with environment variable reference
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_MODPATH1 use_append_modpath_extref1
+
+set tserr "$modpath.spider1:
+moda/1
+moda/2
+
+$modpath.spider2:
+modb/1
+modb/2
+
+$modpath.spider3:
+modc/1
+modc/2"
+set tserr_unkref "$modpath.spider1:
+moda/1
+moda/2"
+
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF er2
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK $tserr
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF bad
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK $tserr_unkref
+unsetenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK $tserr_unkref
+
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_MODPATH1 use_append_modpath_inref1
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK $tserr_unkref
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_MODPATH1 use_append_modpath_inref2
+# setenv is not performed on env variable during scan evaluation
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK $tserr_unkref
+
+
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_MODPATH1 prepend_modpath_extref1
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF er2
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK $tserr
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF bad
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK $tserr_unkref
+unsetenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK $tserr_unkref
+
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_MODPATH1 prepend_modpath_inref1
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK $tserr_unkref
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_MODPATH1 prepend_modpath_inref2
+# setenv is not performed on env variable during scan evaluation
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK $tserr_unkref
+
+setenv_var MODULEPATH $modpath.spid\$TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_MODPATH1 use_append_modpath2
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF er1
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK $tserr
+setenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF bad
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK {}
+unsetenv_var TESTSUITE_SPIDER_EXTREF
+testouterr_cmd sh {spider -t} OK {}
+
+
 #
 #  Cleanup
 #