title: What is the purpose of adding a "." in a path to a file?
body: <p>While looking over documentation of projects, tools etc. I have noticed individuals prepending a period to a file path:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/m1NfV.png" alt="pic from gulp-sprite documentation"></p>
  
  <p>I have tried with and without and it still works, but why do people use the convention?</p>