the TEST command - UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

marwan · #1 (**permalink**) 04-22-2007

Hi everyone,
I am new to UNIX and scripting, and I have some problems with the test command.
when i try to execute the command:
test 20070327.gz > 20070320.gz
i try to make a charachter string comparison between the two strings or the two files, to make sure that 20070327.gz is greater than 20070320.gz
but the command is not accepted, i think the shell interprets the > as an input output redirector, not as a (greater than)sign.
so, how can I escape this error?
Thanks in advance

anbu23 · #2 (**permalink**) 04-22-2007

Add back slash

Code:

test 20070327.gz \> 20070320.gz

cfajohnson · #3 (**permalink**) 04-23-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by marwan

Hi everyone,
I am new to UNIX and scripting, and I have some problems with the test command.
when i try to execute the command:
test 20070327.gz > 20070320.gz
i try to make a charachter string comparison between the two strings or the two files, to make sure that 20070327.gz is greater than 20070320.gz
but the command is not accepted, i think the shell interprets the > as an input output redirector, not as a (greater than)sign.
so, how can I escape this error?

Besides the solution anbu23 gave you (which I avoid, as it's not standard), there are a number of ways. For example, you could remove the suffix:
Code:
f1=20070327.gz
f2=20070320.gz
test ${f1%.gz} -gt ${f2%.gz}

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