$ pwd /Users/ken/tmp $ ls -al .fred ls: cannot access '.fred': No such file or directory $ perl -e 'my $x = q{/Users/ken/tmp/.}; my $y = q{fred}; mkdir $x . $y' $ ls -al .fred total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 ken staff 68 Dec 4 18:27 . drwxr-xr-x 19 ken staff 646 Dec 4 18:27 ..