[SOLVED] Linux Jargon/Terminology

[Oreodog359]

I am puzzling over some terminolgy I hear:

"dot in [some shell script name]"

or

"source in [something]"

or what I suspect is similar (from a kshsrc file)

"# Source the standard Developers profile
. /opt/local/etc/profile "

I have a suspicion what they mean, but not sure of the subtleties of the terms.

Can someone please elucidate?

[oz]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

You can find lots of Linux terms with definitions here:

Linux Dictionary

...or download the pdf file for the same Linux Dictionary here:

http://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Dictionary...Dictionary.pdf

[Oreodog359]

I did not find an answer in in that document, but just stumbled upon a good explanation:

"If, within the script, you export the environment variable it is effective within any programs called by the script. Note that it is not effective within the program that called the script.
If the program that calls the script does so by inclusion instead of calling, any environment changes in the script are effective within the calling program. Such inclusion can be done with the dot command or the source command. Examples:
. $HOME/myscript.sh
source $HOME/myscript.sh "

(find the source web page by Googling this (in quotes) "Such inclusion can be done with the dot command or the source command" )

That helped alot