test

Examples (TL;DR)

• Test if given variable is equal to given string: test $MY_VAR == '/bin/zsh'
• Test if given variable is empty: test -z $GIT_BRANCH
• Test if file exists: test -e filename
• Test if directory not exists: test ! -d path/to/directory
• If-else statement: test condition && echo "true" || echo "false"

tldr.sh

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)

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

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

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

Copyright

Copyright © 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://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

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/[>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) test invocation'

Referenced By

dash(1), datetest(1), innwatch.ctl(5), ksh93(1), ronn-format(7), stest(1).