TEST

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: December 2009
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NAME

test - check file types and compare values

SYNOPSIS

test EXPRESSION
test

[ EXPRESSION ]
[ ]
[ OPTION

DESCRIPTION

Exit with the status determined by EXPRESSION.

--help: display this help and exit
--version: output version information and exit

An omitted EXPRESSION defaults to false. Otherwise, EXPRESSION is true or false and sets exit status. It is one of:

( EXPRESSION ): EXPRESSION is true
! EXPRESSION: EXPRESSION is false
EXPRESSION1 -a EXPRESSION2: both EXPRESSION1 and EXPRESSION2 are true
EXPRESSION1 -o EXPRESSION2: either EXPRESSION1 or EXPRESSION2 is true
-n STRING: the length of STRING is nonzero
STRING: equivalent to -n STRING
-z STRING: the length of STRING is zero
STRING1 = STRING2: the strings are equal
STRING1 != STRING2: the strings are not equal
INTEGER1 -eq INTEGER2: INTEGER1 is equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -ge INTEGER2: INTEGER1 is greater than or equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -gt INTEGER2: INTEGER1 is greater than INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -le INTEGER2: INTEGER1 is less than or equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -lt INTEGER2: INTEGER1 is less than INTEGER2
INTEGER1 -ne INTEGER2: INTEGER1 is not equal to INTEGER2
FILE1 -ef FILE2: FILE1 and FILE2 have the same device and inode numbers
FILE1 -nt FILE2: FILE1 is newer (modification date) than FILE2
FILE1 -ot FILE2: FILE1 is older than FILE2
-b FILE: FILE exists and is block special
-c FILE: FILE exists and is character special
-d FILE: FILE exists and is a directory
-e FILE: FILE exists
-f FILE: FILE exists and is a regular file
-g FILE: FILE exists and is set-group-ID
-G FILE: FILE exists and is owned by the effective group ID
-h FILE: FILE exists and is a symbolic link (same as -L)
-k FILE: FILE exists and has its sticky bit set
-L FILE: FILE exists and is a symbolic link (same as -h)
-O FILE: FILE exists and is owned by the effective user ID
-p FILE: FILE exists and is a named pipe
-r FILE: FILE exists and read permission is granted
-s FILE: FILE exists and has a size greater than zero
-S FILE: FILE exists and is a socket
-t FD: file descriptor FD is opened on a terminal
-u FILE: FILE exists and its set-user-ID bit is set
-w FILE: FILE exists and write permission is granted
-x FILE: FILE exists and execute (or search) permission is granted

Except for -h and -L, all FILE-related tests dereference symbolic links. Beware that parentheses need to be escaped (e.g., by backslashes) for shells. INTEGER may also be -l STRING, which evaluates to the length of STRING.

NOTE: [ honors the --help and --version options, but test does not. test treats each of those as it treats any other nonempty STRING.

NOTE: your shell may have its own version of test and/or [, which usually supersedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supports.

AUTHOR

Written by Kevin Braunsdorf and Matthew Bradburn.

REPORTING BUGS

Report test bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.