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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.

display this help and exit
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
both EXPRESSION1 and EXPRESSION2 are true
either EXPRESSION1 or EXPRESSION2 is true
the length of STRING is nonzero
equivalent to -n STRING
the length of STRING is zero
the strings are equal
the strings are not equal
INTEGER1 is equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 is greater than or equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 is greater than INTEGER2
INTEGER1 is less than or equal to INTEGER2
INTEGER1 is less than INTEGER2
INTEGER1 is not equal to INTEGER2
FILE1 and FILE2 have the same device and inode numbers
FILE1 is newer (modification date) than FILE2
FILE1 is older than FILE2
FILE exists and is block special
FILE exists and is character special
FILE exists and is a directory
FILE exists
FILE exists and is a regular file
FILE exists and is set-group-ID
FILE exists and is owned by the effective group ID
FILE exists and is a symbolic link (same as -L)
FILE exists and has its sticky bit set
FILE exists and is a symbolic link (same as -h)
FILE exists and has been modified since it was last read
FILE exists and is owned by the effective user ID
FILE exists and is a named pipe
FILE exists and the user has read access
FILE exists and has a size greater than zero
FILE exists and is a socket
file descriptor FD is opened on a terminal
FILE exists and its set-user-ID bit is set
FILE exists and the user has write access
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

access(2)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/test>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) test invocation'

March 2024 GNU coreutils 9.4