Careful adding '.' to your $PATH, particularly as the first item. It makes it awful easy to execute something you forgot/didn't know was in the current working

Careful adding '.' to your $PATH, particularly as the first item. It makes it awful easy to execute something you forgot/didn't know was in the current working directory. UPenn gives a pretty good explanation here: http://www.seas.upenn.edu/cets/answers/dot-path.html http://www.seas.upenn.edu/cets/answers/dot-path.html The security issue is most relevant on multi-user systems, including hosted services (e.g. a web server with an upload feature and misconfigured umask). I don't do it on my personal system either because I am my own worst enemy and am frequently saved by the Unix "rule of least surprise." It's the usual convenience/risk balance. To each his own.