The POSIX specification for the dot command[1] states: EXIT STATUS Returns the value of the last command executed, or a zero exit status if no command is executed. If an empty file is sourced, then "no command is executed", and hence the exit status should be zero. If the exit status is not reset before sourcing an empty file, the exit status of the previous command "leaks" through. Here's a simple test case: false . /dev/null [ $? = 0 ] && echo "Success" || echo "Failure" This behaviour becomes more problematic when combined with "set -e". Consider the following snippet: if [ "$FILETYPE" != "shell" ]; then run_external_script "$FILEPATH" else . "$FILEPATH" fi Assume "set -e", that FILETYPE is set to "shell" and that FILEPATH points to an empty file. Since the condition returns a non-zero exit status (which is protected from "set -e" by the if statement), the shell runs the "else" branch of the code, sources the empty file, and then checks the last exit status again. Because the exit status from the condition hasn't been cleared, "set -e" causes the shell to exit even though no un-handled error has occurred. [1] http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/dot.html Signed-off-by: Timothy Allen <screwtape@xxxxxxxxx> --- src/main.c | 1 + 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/main.c b/src/main.c index 1735c67..b4c07e9 100644 --- a/src/main.c +++ b/src/main.c @@ -318,6 +318,7 @@ int dotcmd(int argc, char **argv) { int status = 0; + exitstatus = 0; if (argc >= 2) { /* That's what SVR2 does */ char *fullname; -- 1.7.1 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe dash" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html