This read-create enumerated value indicates the type of path currently active for this LSP, distinguishing a primary path, a standby path, or a generic secondary path, and it is meaningless if no path name or identifier has been supplied. It tells an administrator, at a glance, whether the tunnel is running on its preferred route or has failed over to a backup. Seeing csMplsPathType report standby(3) on a tunnel expected to be on its primary route would immediately flag that a failover has occurred and warrants investigation of the primary path.