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.

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
	      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

       EXPRESSION1 -a EXPRESSION2
	      both EXPRESSION1 and EXPRESSION2 are true

       EXPRESSION1 -o EXPRESSION2
	      either EXPRESSION1 or EXPRESSION2 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

       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
	      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: [ 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

       Report test bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
       GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://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

       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 coreutils 'test invocation'

       should give you access to the complete manual.

GNU coreutils 7.1						     July 2010								   TEST(1)