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Re:J: an alternative to cd that learns where you spend time by parenthesis on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @09:25AM (#485772)
I think what is referred to is bash's source command: when you've modified your .bashrc and you want the changes to be reflected in your current shell process, you do

  source .bashrc
or, equivalently

  . .bashrc
which runs .bashrc in the current shell, as opposed to in a forked subshell as happens if you did ./.bashrc ; and hence the new functions/aliases/variable settings you've put in .bashrc are now available in the current shell (as opposed to only being visible in a forked subshell and disappearing when it exits).
Re:J: an alternative to cd that learns where you spend time by truebosko on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @09:58AM (#485801)
Now it's clearer, thank you! :)