Shell Programming and Scripting

I have two shell scripts in the different directories listed below,

Code:

/root/dev/dir1/test.sh
/root/dev/dir2/master.sh

I am executing the master.sh script from the test.sh like below and getting 'Permission denied' error.

Code:

#! /bin/sh
#test.sh
path='/root/dev'
$path/dir2/master.sh

But it works fine after including a '.' infront of the script and it works fine. Please see below for the change,

Code:

#! /bin/sh
#test.sh
path='/root/dev'
. $path/dir2/master.sh

Please explain the concept behind this and let me know is there any way to execute the master.sh in dir2 without the '.' symbol

What are the permissions on the dir2/master.sh script? Is it executable?

By using . (dot) you are "sourcing" the script into your current environment, and it's run from there. If you want to run it the way you have, it needs to be executable.

I have added the below code piece and found the file is not executable

Code:

if [ -x $path/dir2/master.sh ]
then
echo "Executable"
else
echo "Not executable"
fi

---------- Post updated at 04:55 AM ---------- Previous update was at 04:39 AM ----------

Thank you Scott. I wasn't facing this problem earlier and my profile has been reset. I guess this is the root cause.