DOT(P)                                                                                     DOT(P)



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 readable file is found, a
       non-interactive shell shall abort; an interactive shell shall write a  diagnostic  message
       to standard 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 extension 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, Copyright (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 orig-
       inal Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .



POSIX                                          2003                                        DOT(P)