TEST(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   TEST(1)

NAME

       test - set status according to condition

SYNOPSIS

       test expr

DESCRIPTION

       Test  evaluates the expression expr.  If the value is true the exit status is null; otherwise the exit status is non-null.  If there are no
       arguments the exit status is non-null.

       The following primitives are used to construct expr.

       -r file	  True if the file exists (is accessible) and is readable.

       -w file	  True if the file exists and is writable.

       -x file	  True if the file exists and has execute permission.

       -e file	  True if the file exists.

       -f file	  True if the file exists and is a plain file.

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

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

       -t fildes  True if the open file whose file descriptor number is fildes (1 by default) is the same file as /dev/cons.

       s1 = s2	  True if the strings s1 and s2 are identical.

       s1 != s2   True if the strings s1 and s2 are not identical.

       s1	  True if s1 is not the null string.  (Deprecated.)

       -n s1	  True if the length of string s1 is non-zero.

       -z s1	  True if the length of string s1 is zero.

       n1 -eq n2  True if the integers n1 and n2 are arithmetically equal.  Any of the comparisons -ne, -gt, -ge, -lt, or -le may be used in place
		  of -eq.  The (nonstandard) construct -l string, meaning the length of string, may be used in place of an integer.

       These primaries may be combined with the following operators:

       !	 unary negation operator

       -o	 binary or operator

       -a	 binary and operator; higher precedence than -o

       ( expr )  parentheses for grouping.

       The primitives -b, -u, -g, and -s return false; they are recognized for compatibility with POSIX.

       Notice  that all the operators and flags are separate arguments to test.  Notice also that parentheses and equal signs are meaningful to rc
       and must be enclosed in quotes.

EXAMPLES

       Test is a dubious way to check for specific character strings: it uses a process to do what an rc(1) match or switch statement can do.  The
       first example is not only inefficient but wrong, because test understands the purported string "-c" as an option.

	      if (test $1 '=' "-c") echo OK # wrong!

       A better way is

	      if (~ $1 -c) echo OK

       Test whether is in the current directory.

	      test -f abc -o -d abc

SOURCE

       /sys/src/cmd/test.c

SEE ALSO

       rc(1)

																	   TEST(1)