table of contents
| TEST(1) | User Commands | TEST(1) |
NAME¶
test - check file types and compare values
SYNOPSIS¶
test EXPRESSION
test
[ EXPRESSION ]
[ ]
[ OPTION
DESCRIPTION¶
Exit with the status determined by EXPRESSION.
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)
- -N FILE
- FILE exists and has been modified since it was last read
- -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 the user has read access
- -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 the user has write access
- -x FILE
- FILE exists and the user has execute (or search) access
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: Binary -a and -o are inherently ambiguous. Use 'test EXPR1 && test EXPR2' or 'test EXPR1 || test EXPR2' instead.
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¶
GNU coreutils online help:
<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to
<https://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright © 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License
GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<https://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.
SEE ALSO¶
Full documentation
<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/test>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) test invocation'
| March 2024 | GNU coreutils 9.4 |