Hi All,

Lets take there is a executable file called TestEXE

Is there any difference between the two following commands

. TestEXE

AND

./TestEXE

When exactly these two notations are useful ?

Thanks well in adavance.

Thanks,
Suresh bhat

Try this

echo env > newfile
chmod 755 newfile

./newfile

. newfile

See the difference in environment variables.
You can notice that SHLVL value is diff in the two commands.

If ./newfile a new shell is spawned and the command executed in that shell.

In '. newfile' the command is executed in the same shell.

Thanks a lot for the speedy reply.

Hi,

As I have it:

.TestEXE
This means the file is hidden in the current directory.
if you go : vi Test and then press TAB to auto complete you will get no response but
if you try: vi .Test and then press TAB to auto complete you will get a list of all the hidden file starting with 'Test' in current directoy

./TestEXE
./ -> means current directory
Say you have a script in /usr/bin/ called 'TestEXE' and in your home directory a different script also called 'TestEXE', then by typing ./TestEXE in your home directory your specifying to use this script in your pwd.

Hope it helps.

If the first character is a dot, this is a synonym for the source command. The source command runs the script in the same shell instead of the launching a subshell. This is done for configuration scripts like the scripts in /etc/sysconfig/ and for you shell start up scripts, because then you can set variables in you script.

It is normal not to have the current directory, "." in your PATH variable, so to launch a program in the current directory you can precede the command with "./". You could also launch a script in the current directory like this: sh scriptname, or by using the full pathname. /home/username/scriptname.