User Commands                                             TEST(1)



NAME
     test - check file types and compare values

SYNOPSIS
     test EXPRESION
     test

     [ EXPRESION ]
     [ ]
     [ OPTION

DESCRIPTION
     Exit with the status determined by EXPRESION.

     --help
          display this help and exit

     --version
          output version information and exit

     An omitted EXPRESION defaults to false.  Otherwise, EXPRES-
     SION is true or false and sets exit status.  It is one of:

     ( EXPRESION )
          EXPRESION is true

     ! EXPRESION
          EXPRESION is false

     EXPRESION1 -a EXPRESION2
          both EXPRESION1 and EXPRESION2 are true

     EXPRESION1 -o EXPRESION2
          either EXPRESION1 or EXPRESION2 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



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User Commands                                             TEST(1)



     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



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User Commands                                             TEST(1)



          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 read permission is granted

     -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 write permission is granted

     -x FILE
          FILE exists  and  execute  (or  search)  permission  is
          granted

     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: 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
     Report bugs to .

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright O 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     This is free software.  You may redistribute  copies  of  it
     under   the   terms   of  the  GNU  General  Public  License
     .  There  is  NO  WAR-
     RANTY, to the extent permitted by law.



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User Commands                                             TEST(1)



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

          info test

     should give you access to the complete manual.

ATRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     
       ATRIBUTE TYPE      ATRIBUTE VALUE  
    
     Availability         SUNWgnu-coreutils 
    
     Interface Stability  Uncommitted       
    

NOTES
     Source    for    GNU    coreutils    is     available     on
     http:/opensolaris.org.































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