Why do you need ./ (dot-slash) before executable or script name to run it in bash?

Question

When running scripts in bash, I have to write ./ in the beginning:

$ ./manage.py syncdb

If I don\'t, I get an error message:

Answer 1

On *nix, unlike Windows, the current directory is usually not in your $PATH variable. So the current directory is not searched when executing commands. You don't need ./ for running applications because these applications are in your $PATH; most likely they are in /bin or /usr/bin.