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17.4.89 test

Command: test expression ¶

Evaluate expression and return zero exit status if result is true, non zero status otherwise.

expression is one of:

string1 == string2

the strings are equal

string1 != string2

the strings are not equal

string1 < string2

string1 is lexicographically less than string2

string1 <= string2

string1 is lexicographically less or equal than string2

string1 > string2

string1 is lexicographically greater than string2

string1 >= string2

string1 is lexicographically greater or equal than string2

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

prefixinteger1 -pgt prefixinteger2

integer1 is greater than integer2 after stripping off common non-numeric prefix.

prefixinteger1 -plt prefixinteger2

integer1 is less than integer2 after stripping off common non-numeric prefix.

file1 -nt file2

file1 is newer than file2 (modification time). Optionally numeric bias may be directly appended to -nt in which case it is added to the first file modification time.

file1 -ot file2

file1 is older than file2 (modification time). Optionally numeric bias may be directly appended to -ot in which case it is added to the first file modification time.

-d file

file exists and is a directory

-e file

file exists

-f file

file exists and is not a directory

-s file

file exists and has a size greater than zero

-n string

the length of string is nonzero

string

string is equivalent to -n string

-z string

the length of string is zero

( expression )

expression is true

! expression

expression is false

expression1 -a expression2

both expression1 and expression2 are true

expression1 expression2

both expression1 and expression2 are true. This syntax is not POSIX-compliant and is not recommended.

expression1 -o expression2

either expression1 or expression2 is true