I decided to learn [C++](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C++) (I program in [C](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_%28programming_language%29) at work), and I have been reading some tutorials (and lots of posts here on Stack Overflow). OK, so I typed in the standard C++ "hello word", compiled with [GCC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Compiler_Collection) on my [Ubuntu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28operating_system%29) machine as "test".

Then I tried to run it by typing "test" and hitting enter. Nothing. It turns out I must run it with "./test". OK, fine, I'll do that from now on. But why? The "./" just says that what I should run is in the current directory... Is the current directory not always part of the PATH when the [OS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system) is searching for something to run? Can I make it so?