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
       original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE/The Open Group                                   2003                                                DOT(P)