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 su-
persedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell's docu-
mentation for details about the options it supports.
AUTHOR
Written by Kevin Braunsdorf and Matthew Bradburn.
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
SEE ALSO
access(2)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/test>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) test invocation'
Packaged by Debian (9.7-3)
Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/li-
censes/gpl.html>.
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 June 2025 TEST(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 04:16:17 CET 2025.