You'd need to `set -a` or pass the `-a` as a flag to have them auto-exported though, so: sh -ac '. ./.env; ./prog' Also if you use the `.` builtin it's a

You'd need to `set -a` or pass the `-a` as a flag to have them auto-exported though, so: sh -ac '. ./.env; ./prog' Also if you use the `.` builtin it's a good idea to specify the path with a slash in it, so that `.` doesn't search $PATH first.