dot-command

What happens when I execute a unix shell script using a '.' command?

For e.g., when I say ". .bashrc" on my linux command prompt, is there a corresponding binary/script that gets executed in place of the first dot? If the dot itself is a command, where is its location? ...

Execute sqlite3 "dot" commands from Python or register collation in command line utility

My sqlite3 database contains a "collate" column-constraint. I've placed it in the schema for the table, to prevent accidentally neglecting to use the necessary collation. However this means when running sqlite3 from the command line, and not from my Python code, the collation referenced in the schema is not present, and I'm unable to use...