Manual: gnutest

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

       STRING1 > STRING2
	      STRING1 is greater than STRING2 in the current locale

       STRING1 < STRING2
	      STRING1 is less than STRING2 in the current locale

       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)

       -N FILE
	      FILE exists and has been modified since it was last read

       -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 the user has read access

       -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 the user has write access

       -x FILE
	      FILE exists and the user has execute (or search) access

       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.

       Binary -a and -o are ambiguous.	Use 'test EXPR1 && test EXPR2' or 'test EXPR1 || test EXPR2' instead.

       '[' honors --help and --version, but 'test' treats them as STRINGs.

       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
       GNU coreutils online help: 
       Report any translation bugs to 

SEE ALSO
       access(2)

       Full documentation 
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) test invocation'

       Packaged by Ubuntu (9.7-3ubuntu2)
       Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later .
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
       There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

GNU coreutils 9.7					January 2026						     TEST(1)