TEST(1)

NAME
       test - check file types and compare values

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

DESCRIPTION
       This  documentation  is no longer being maintained and may
       be inaccurate or incomplete.  The Texinfo documentation is
       now the authoritative source.

       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 omit-
              ted, 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 expres-
              sion  -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.