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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 .