test

Get help on Linux test Command.

Linux test command is use to evaluate conditional expression on Linux system. The Linux test command is one of bash shell built in command. The command example below show how to get test command manual or help on Linux test command using shell command, this help show information on how to use the Linux test command, the test command options and the arguments that can be use with Linux test command.

Get Linux test command help

Execute help command and the name of Linux command that we want the help file, the example below we execute help command with -m option to get the help for test command using the manpage format.

[linux@fedora11 ~]$ help -m test

NAME

test - Evaluate conditional expression.

SYNOPSIS

test [expr]

DESCRIPTION

Evaluate conditional expression.

Exits with a status of 0 (true) or 1 (false) depending on

the evaluation of EXPR. Expressions may be unary or binary. Unary

expressions are often used to examine the status of a file. There

are string operators as well, and numeric comparison operators.

File operators:

-a FILE True if file exists.

-b FILE True if file is block special.

-c FILE True if file is character special.

-d FILE True if file 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 is set-group-id.

-h FILE True if file is a symbolic link.

-L FILE True if file is a symbolic link.

-k FILE True if file has its `sticky' bit set.

-p FILE True if file is a named pipe.

-r FILE True if file is readable by you.

-s FILE True if file exists and is not empty.

-S FILE True if file is a socket.

-t FD True if FD is opened on a terminal.

-u FILE True if the file is set-user-id.

-w FILE True if the file is writable by you.

-x FILE True if the file is executable by you.

-O FILE True if the file is effectively owned by you.

-G FILE True if the file is effectively owned by your group.

-N FILE True if the file has been modified since it was last read.

FILE1 -nt FILE2 True if file1 is newer than file2 (according to

modification date).

FILE1 -ot FILE2 True if file1 is older than file2.

FILE1 -ef FILE2 True if file1 is a hard link to file2.

String operators:

-z STRING True if string is empty.

-n STRING

STRING True if string is not empty.

STRING1 = STRING2

True if the strings are equal.

STRING1 != STRING2

True if the strings are not equal.

STRING1 < STRING2

True if STRING1 sorts before STRING2 lexicographically.

STRING1 > STRING2

True if STRING1 sorts after STRING2 lexicographically.

Other operators:

-o OPTION True if the shell option OPTION is enabled.

! 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 Arithmetic tests. OP is one of -eq, -ne,

-lt, -le, -gt, or -ge.

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.

Exit Status:

Returns success if EXPR evaluates to true; fails if EXPR evaluates to

false or an invalid argument is given.

SEE ALSO

bash(1)

IMPLEMENTATION

GNU bash, version 4.0.16(1)-release (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)

License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

[linux@fedora11 ~]$

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