DOT(1P)                                             POSIX Programmer's Manual                                            DOT(1P)



PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
       sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the  interface  may  not  be  implemented  on
       Linux.

NAME
       dot - execute commands in the current environment

SYNOPSIS
       . file

DESCRIPTION
       The shell shall execute commands from the file in the current environment.

       If  file does not contain a slash, the shell shall use the search path specified by PATH to find the directory containing
       file. Unlike normal command search, however, the file searched for by the dot utility need not be executable. If no read-
       able  file  is found, a non-interactive shell shall abort; an interactive shell shall write a diagnostic message to stan-
       dard error, but this condition shall not be considered a syntax error.

OPTIONS
       None.

OPERANDS
       See the DESCRIPTION.

STDIN
       Not used.

INPUT FILES
       See the DESCRIPTION.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       See the DESCRIPTION.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       Not used.

STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       Returns the value of the last command executed, or a zero exit status if no command is executed.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       None.

EXAMPLES
              cat foobar
              foo=hello bar=world. foobar
              echo $foo $bar
              hello world

RATIONALE
       Some older implementations searched the current directory for the file, even if the value of PATH  disallowed  it.   This
       behavior  was  omitted  from  this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 due to concerns about introducing the susceptibility to
       trojan horses that the user might be trying to avoid by leaving dot out of PATH.

       The KornShell version of dot takes optional arguments that are set to the positional parameters. This is a  valid  exten-
       sion that allows a dot script to behave identically to a function.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       Special Built-In Utilities

COPYRIGHT
       Portions  of  this  text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for
       Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6,  Copy-
       right (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any
       discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open  Group
       Standard   is   the   referee   document.   The   original   Standard   can   be   obtained  online  at  http://www.open-
       group.org/unix/online.html .



IEEE/The Open Group                                           2003                                                       DOT(1P)