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up vote 5 down vote favorite

This question already has an answer here:

What does . /path/to/a/shell-script-file do exactly? I mean obviously it executes that shell script but why put that . followed by a space before the path/name of the script file?

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marked as duplicate by G-Man, Anthon, garethTheRed, X Tian, Bananguin 18 hours ago

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
    
I missed the space after the period, so my answer was totally inaccurate and I deleted it. – Wildcard yesterday
    
Possible duplicate of Different ways to execute a shell script  Related: running a script with “.” and with “source”. – G-Man yesterday

2 Answers 2

up vote 10 down vote

. or source tells the shell to execute the script itself, instead of forking a sub-shell to run it in.

This allows the script to modify the environment of the shell.

For example, if you have a script that sets certain environment variables or defines aliases then running it without . will define those things in a sub-shell, and they will disappear when the sub-shell terminates. Running it with . will define them in the current shell.

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up vote 1 down vote

Say you have a file of custom environment settings (aliases, additions to $PATH, etc). Call the file custom_env.

Usually this stuff will go in your .profile or .bashrc. But sometimes you might want it in separate file, then you can apply it to your session as needed, e.g.

. ./custom_env
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