While executing a shell script involving database connection, my script showed me an Error :sqlplus not found :
sqlplus -s username/paswd@DB_name > /home/user/sql.out << EOF
But when i included the following statement, it started to work:
source ~oracle/.bash_profile
What is the purpose of this above line ?
This includes ~oracle/.bash_profilein the script where the line source ~oracle/.bash_profile is.
In your case it probably add the directory of Oracle bin in your PATH.
see also source/dot man page
That line includes the referenced shell script (in this case the .bash_profile from the Oracle home directory).
It's a simple means of decomposing shell scripts into smaller components and thus enabling reuse.