Manpages - test.1

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)
-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.

Binary -a and -o are ambiguous. Use 'test EXPR1 && test EXPR2' or 'test EXPR1 || test EXPR2' instead.

'[' honors –help and –version, but 'test' treats them as STRINGs.

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/>