[SOLVED] Writing a function, question about a symbol's meaning
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Writing a function, question about a symbol's meaning
Generally I prefer to avoid asking simple questions, but I can't seem to get any information on this one. If I were to write this function, for example:
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi
what does the '.' in the second line indicate ('.' ~/.bashrc)?
'.' is equivalent to 'source'. Both are bash builtins, so, check the bash man page to see what 'source' does.
The basic purpose of 'source' is to dump the contents of a shell script on the current shell, instead of spawning a new sub-shell. This is done this way because in bashrc you usually set a number of variables, and setting them into a subshell really makes no sense, since they will go away when the script exits. So, if you want a shell to run on the current shell you 'source' it instead of running it the traditional way.
OK, I get the general idea. Now I just have to read the man for source and learn what sub-shells are. That's easy enough though, I can take it from here. Thank you!
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That's easy enough though, I can take it from here. Thank you!
