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Manual Reference Pages  - [ (1)

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test - check file types and compare values

CONTENTS

Synopsis
Description
Author
Copyright

test EXPRESSION
[ EXPRESSION ]
[ OPTION

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
-h FILE	FILE exists and is a symbolic link (same as -L)
-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 (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 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.

Written by Kevin Braunsdorf and Matthew Bradburn.

Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.

Copyright © 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

The full documentation for [ is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and [ programs are properly installed at your site, the command

	info coreutils test

should give you access to the complete manual.

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