1DOT(P)                     POSIX Programmer's Manual                    DOT(P)
2
3
4

NAME

6       dot - execute commands in the current environment
7

SYNOPSIS

9       . file
10

DESCRIPTION

12       The  shell shall execute commands from the file in the current environ‐
13       ment.
14
15       If file does not contain a slash, the shell shall use the  search  path
16       specified  by PATH to find the directory containing file. Unlike normal
17       command search, however, the file searched for by the dot utility  need
18       not  be  executable.  If  no  readable file is found, a non-interactive
19       shell shall abort; an interactive shell shall write a  diagnostic  mes‐
20       sage  to  standard  error, but this condition shall not be considered a
21       syntax error.
22

OPTIONS

24       None.
25

OPERANDS

27       See the DESCRIPTION.
28

STDIN

30       Not used.
31

INPUT FILES

33       See the DESCRIPTION.
34

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

36       See the DESCRIPTION.
37

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

39       Default.
40

STDOUT

42       Not used.
43

STDERR

45       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
46

OUTPUT FILES

48       None.
49

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

51       None.
52

EXIT STATUS

54       Returns the value of the last command executed, or a zero  exit  status
55       if no command is executed.
56

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

58       Default.
59
60       The following sections are informative.
61

APPLICATION USAGE

63       None.
64

EXAMPLES

66              cat foobar
67              foo=hello bar=world. foobar
68              echo $foo $bar
69              hello world
70

RATIONALE

72       Some older implementations searched the current directory for the file,
73       even if the value of PATH disallowed it.   This  behavior  was  omitted
74       from  this  volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 due to concerns about intro‐
75       ducing the susceptibility to trojan horses that the user might be  try‐
76       ing to avoid by leaving dot out of PATH .
77
78       The  KornShell  version of dot takes optional arguments that are set to
79       the positional parameters. This is a valid extension that allows a  dot
80       script to behave identically to a function.
81

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

83       None.
84

SEE ALSO

86       Special Built-In Utilities
87

89       Portions  of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
90       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
91       --  Portable  Operating  System  Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
92       Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003  by  the  Institute  of
93       Electrical  and  Electronics  Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
94       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
95       The  Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
96       is the referee document. The original Standard can be  obtained  online
97       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
98
99
100
101IEEE/The Open Group                  2003                               DOT(P)
Impressum