Manpage of TEST

NAME

test - check file types and compare values

SYNOPSIS

test EXPRESSION
[ EXPRESSION ]
test OPTION

DESCRIPTION

Exit with the status determined by EXPRESSION.

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

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
-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
-k FILE: FILE exists and has its sticky bit set
-L FILE: FILE exists and is a symbolic link
-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 is readable
-s FILE: FILE exists and has a size greater than zero
-S FILE: FILE exists and is a socket
-t [FD]: file descriptor FD (stdout by default) is opened on a terminal
-u FILE: FILE exists and its set-user-ID bit is set
-w FILE: FILE exists and is writable
-x FILE: FILE exists and is executable

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.

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to <bug-sh-utils@gnu.org>.

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