test(1l)

NAME

test - check file types and compare values

SYNOPSIS

test [expr]
test {--help,--version}

DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents the GNU version of test . Note that most shells have a built-in command by the same name and with similar functionality.

test returns a status of 0 (true) or 1 (false) depending on the evaluation of the conditional expression expr . Expressions may be unary or binary. Unary expressions are often used to examine the status of a file. There are string operators and numeric comparison operators as well.

-b file
True if file exists and is block special.

-c file
True if file exists and is character special.

-d file
True if file exists and is a directory.

-e file
True if file exists

-f file
True if file exists and is a regular file.

-g file
True if file exists and is set-group-id.

-k file
True if file has its ``sticky'' bit set.

-L file
True if file exists and is a symbolic link.

-p file
True if file exists and is a named pipe.

-r file
True if file exists and is readable.

-s file
True if file exists and has a size greater than zero.

-S file
True if file exists and is a socket.

-t [fd]
True if fd is opened on a terminal. If fd is omitted, it defaults to 1 (standard output).

-u file
True if file exists and its set-user-id bit is set.

-w file
True if file exists and is writable.

-x file
True if file exists and is executable.

-O file
True if file exists and is owned by the effective user id.

-G file
True if file exists and is owned by the effective group id.

file1 -nt file2
True if file1 is newer (according to modification date) than file2.

file1 -ot file2
True if file1 is older than file2.

file1 -ef file2
True if file1 and file2 have the same device and inode numbers.

-z string
True if the length of string is zero.

-n string

string
True if the length of string is non-zero.

string1 = string2
True if the strings are equal.

string1 != string2
True if the strings are not equal.

! expr
True if expr is false.

expr1 -a expr2
True if both expr1 and expr2 are true.

expr1 -o expr2
True if either expr1 or expr2 is true.

arg1 OP arg2
OP is one of -eq , -ne , -lt , -le , -gt , or -ge . These arithmetic binary operators return true if arg1 is equal, not-equal, less-than, less-than-or-equal, greater-than, or greater-than-or-equal than arg2, respectively. arg1 and arg2 may be positive integers, negative integers, or the special expression -l string, which evaluates to the length of string .

OPTIONS

When GNU test is invoked with exactly one argument, the following options are recognized:

--help
Print a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.

--version
Print version information on standard output then exit successfully.